Touch of Darkness, Embrace of Light
by Rannaty
Summary: AU, Tendershipping. Mage's power can be considered as the opposite of that of the warlock's but the advanced state of magic, whether it is white or black, holds many similar aspects.
1. Prologue

**Touch of Darkness, Embrace of Light**

**Prologue **

A young boy of sixteen was lying on his bed, legs up in the air, waving back and forth as he read a large and thick book. The book of impressive size and red covers was titled, with the use of much imagination, '_The Basics_'. It was the basics of types of wizardry and the social ranking of the people practicing a certain type of art.

The boy was commonly known as Ryou because that was his given name. He had an examination coming up about the things he was trying to learn. Quite frankly, the social rankings were boring to him as he had never cared about them. Ryou had been raised to think all beings as equals, no matter what type of magic they happened to practice or if they practiced magic at all. Ryou himself was naturally talented with white magic and healing abilities, though to the amazement of many of his peers, he was also able to communicate with the dead; a power of those who practiced the darker arts.

_Warlocks: The ones to practice the dark arts, such as raising the dead, calling upon the powers of the underworld and controlling evil spirits to do their bidding. The warlocks are considered to be low in rank and status but often get respect from their peers with the great deal of magical power they often poses. Many warlocks are stronger than the ones who practice the white arts, which is why their ranking is often high but also why they are left outside of the society. Some warlocks are known to go against the law and order to get personal gain, thus earning the reputation of a criminal. When a warlock is born, his or her mother dies in childbirth for unknown reasons, _

Ryou read from the book. That part was interesting to him. The teen had never met a warlock but he had heard countless stories of them and was looking forward for his first encounter with one. The rumor has it that the new teacher, who mainly taught those in the advanced level, was a warlock.

The school was just normal looking, large five stories high building on the outside but on the inside it held many classes for those with magical abilities. It also had its own dormitory for students to stay in if they lived far, seeing that there was only one school for each bigger continent because the ones with magic were rare and far between. Of course sometimes there were families with countless generations of magic but they were even rarer than the random people popping up with magical abilities. Ryou was one of those few who had relatives with magic running through their veins, his mother had been one and so had his sister. Ryou's father was just an ordinary man who just happened to marry a mage.

_Mages: A mage is one to practice the white magic, consisting of healing and curing abilities. The difference between healing and curing is that healing is the art of curing the wounds of the soul, whereas curing only cures those of the physical being. Where many of those who practice magic are able to cure, mages poses the most powerful of curing abilities, as well as the power to heal, which is not often found in a non-mage person. Mage's power can be considered as the opposite of that of the warlock's but the advanced state of magic, whether it is white or black, holds many similar aspects. Mages are appreciated in the society and often clime to the higher ranks. To fully un-tap the power of a mage takes a lot of practice and patience from the one possessing the power. In schools the advanced state for a mage comes a year after that of the people of his or her age. _

Ryou was currently a state lower from the advanced state and it would take him at least a year to get to the level of ability it took. His roommate, Malik, who was half fairy, half human, was the same age as him but already on the advanced state. Malik was a talented person when it came to the practical use of magic but his knowledge in theory lacked a bit so Ryou was assigned to help him with his theory since they lived together and were both in the same healing class.

No one was quite sure what Malik's forte was when it came to magic. He did have great healing skills, but lacked on the other aspects of white arts so he wasn't a mage. He also took classes with the witches and wizards but wasn't as talented with "the language" as they were so he wasn't a wizard either. He could summon evil spirits but that was as far as his powers in the dark arts went. Malik was just a mix of little everything, both in race and in magic.

_Witches and Wizards: Are considered to be a mixture of the black and the white arts, but do not posses the power to neither heal nor harbor the power of the underworld. Their main point in magic, however, lies with the language. The language is the normal magical language spoken by a person with a great deal of mental power to make true of what he or she is saying. They rank high in society because they are both powerful and well meaning. The art of the spoken word, as their magic is known, consist of a vast amount of adjectives they need to describe what they want to do. Witches and wizards carry a staff or a wand, which is unusual, compared to the other two other types of magic users who both use hands and different symbols._

The language was a way for all the magic users around the world to communicate with each other; it was their own language, which they could speak naturally from birth. The names they carried were also a part of the complicated communication system, they told more about the person then just the word that was their name, it held feeling, which was an important part of the language. You couldn't speak without feeling nor could you lie. Only the ones with most practice could tell half truths.

For example 'Ryou', it was a name but spoken by someone it held feeling of gentleness and innocence but also will power and courage and told to the one listening that he was a mage in training.

The problem with the magical powers being discovered in birth was that the person was automatically ranked in a certain place in the society. Like if you were a warlock, you were almost always deemed to be an outcast, but if you were lucky enough to be a witch or wizard, your future was very bright. Almost all the members of The Counsel were wizards or witches and they made sure that the system wouldn't change any time soon and the prejudice was deep within the society.

Ryou sighed as he thought about this but decided that it was better for him to just concentrate on his studies unless he wished to fail, if he failed, he would never get the chance to make a difference.

* * *

Edit: Now with gooder grammer, speling and punctuation,. …seriously. I fixed the mistakes I could find and removed the old author's notes.


	2. Name

**Name**

The exam was held in a large, auditorium-like room. Every seat was taken by a student, trying to fill in the questions. Some scratched their heads or bit their pencils in thought. One or two had fallen asleep on their desks. The subject wasn't exactly the favorite of most students and they often found it boring.

An hour into the exam and Ryou was done. Studying had paid off but now he was bored, leaning on his hand and absently chewing his pencil, a bad habit of his. The pencils never lived long. He had read through his answers and wanted to leave but all examinees were required to stay at least an hour and a half. The time just seemed to drag by in a very slow pace.

He looked around to see what other people were doing, carefully not to seem like he was trying to cheat. Nothing interesting was going on and even the person who took care that no one cheated looked bored out of his mind. Ryou recognized him as his curing teacher, a nice guy but a bit of a... Well, the students called him 'Professor Brain Damage' because that was what his lectures caused, brain damage.

Ten minutes to go, Ryou cheered in his head, happy to get out of the classroom. If only the clock would move faster... Suddenly the sound of the door opening and closing caught his attention. The teacher stood up and went to meet the one who just came in. Ryou turned his eyes on the person and he couldn't help but stare. The new person had the same type of white hair as he did but it was much wilder and where Ryou dressed in light colors, the person wore completely black. It had to be the new teacher, seeing how Ryou had never seen him before. He had heard stories from students that had had his class and if he could trust the hearsay, the new teacher was a different story all together.

Professor Brain Damage didn't look happy and Ryou hoped that he could hear what was being said, but if the unhappy frown and the arrogant expression told him anything, Brain Damage didn't like the new teacher and what he was saying. Soon the older man stomped out of the classroom, clearly unhappy. Ryou frowned in confusion and chewed his pencil in thought. The new teacher had some say in things it seemed. Brain Damage was one of the older teachers and no one bossed him around easily. Ryou glanced around before reaching out to see what sort of power the teacher had. Technically, that wasn't allowed during an exam, but one couldn't really detect something like that.

Ryou fell off his chair with a loud thud. "Aaah!" The commotion caused people to look at him and he blushed from embarrassment. The teacher, who had been writing something on the blackboard, turned to look at him too and Ryou could feel a spike up in his already powerful aura and could have sworn that his eyes flashed red.

Ryou stood up, an awkward smile on his face, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm sorry..." he mumbled and could hear a few snickers from the other students. "I just kind of... fell off." Ryou glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that he could leave now and sighed in relief. "Excuse me..." He started to back up his stuff. Some students whispered with each other and laughed quietly.

"If you don't go back to your exams _now_ and shut the hell up, I'm going to remove you and fail your pathetic asses!" came the harsh voice of the teacher and everyone instantly did as they were told.

Ryou was grateful that everyone stopped staring and made his way down to where the teacher's desk was. The teacher had finished his writing on the board and looked over his work. It seemed to be some kind of ritual pattern and Ryou remembered seeing one in one of his books before but there seemed to be something wrong with this one.

"I thought you were leaving. Just put the paper on the table."

Ryou snapped out of his thoughts and noticed that he had been staring at the pattern with the exam still in his hands and the teacher was staring at him. He found himself lost in the burning eyes. His eyes were brown too but not like that... Ryou remembered the feeling that had made him fall off his chair and it was much stronger when he stood so close and his senses were still open. It nearly knocked him off his feet. Ryou had always been sensitive about things like other people's aura, and that was why he was so good at healing.

"Hey!" the teacher snapped his fingers in front of his eyes, as if to break a curse and Ryou jumped back.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I just um..." Ryou stammered. "There's something wrong with your... pattern over there..." he quickly said, as if that would explain everything. The teacher raised an eyebrow.

"Do you know what it does?" he asked, indicating the pattern on the blackboard. Ryou took another look at the thing with a slight frown. It dawned to him now what was wrong with it and it was better to be flawed than work.

"It sucks out the souls in this room and I suppose it also creates some kind of portal..." Ryou finally said and looked back at the teacher who nodded in what he guessed was approval.

"Now what's wrong with it then?" the teacher asked and Ryou got the aching feeling that he was being tested. And he had just passed one test too. He got a piece of chalk and stood up on a chair, adding something on the outer rim.

"These would have to switch places too." Ryou got off the chair and pointed at two symbols. He felt a bit insecure under the gaze of the teacher and just waited him to say something.

"Impressive. Well, for a lower level student," the teacher finally said with a smirk. Ryou wasn't sure if he should be pleased or insulted so he just ended up feeling the mixture of the two, which greatly resembled confusion. He put his paper on the desk finally and got ready to leave. He got to the door when he was called back.

"You, wait a sec!"

"Ryou." Ryou turned around to see what he wanted now, introducing himself because he didn't want to be called 'you'.

"Whatever, Ryou." He waved it off. "My advanced dark arts class is in this classroom next period, come check it out."

The boy was a bit shocked by this and stumbled backwards a few steps. "What? I c-can't do that, I have curing next period."

"So what? I get you a permission slip so that old man can't get on your case. You come see how those idiots do in class."

"Well, I-."

"Good, off you go then."

Ryou stared for a while before turning on his heels and exiting the room. He obviously didn't have a say in this, not that he wanted to go to curing but still.

He reached his locker and opened it before remembering that he didn't need anything from there because he wasn't going to class, or not to the one he was supposed to. There was something on the bottom of the locker, though, and as Ryou picked it up, he saw it to be a permission slip. He blinked, closed the door and pocketed the slip.

"What's that? Did you get a love letter?" came a teasing voice behind his shoulder and he sighed in annoyance.

"No, it's not a love letter. I got a permission to be absent from curing next period." he explained to his friend and roommate, Malik. The other boy flapped his small fairy wings a bit. He somehow believed that Ryou had a secret admirer every single time he got some sort of piece of paper.

"Since when did permission slips start to appear in lockers?"

"Since people started to draw transporting circles on them." Ryou took out the slip again and showed the tiny magical circle on it before putting it back into his pocket.

"_Someone_ is going through a lot of trouble to get you off class. Who is it?" Malik asked eagerly. It wasn't easy to do a transporting circle that small.

"The new teacher, he wants me to come to the advanced dark arts class. I guess I made a pretty good impression or something." Ryou shrugged as if it wasn't that big of a deal, when in reality it was. That kind of thing just didn't happen, it was an unspoken rule.

"Either that or he has the hots for you," Malik just stated and Ryou had to wonder how could he just say things like that like it wasn't a big deal.

"Uh, I don't think that's it."

"My theory is just as likely as yours," the other argued. "I can ask him if you want."

"Do _not_ under any circumstances do that," Ryou hissed. His friend amazed him sometimes. "What would you say anyway? You can't just go and ask things like that."

"Of course I can! 'Hello mister new teacher, do you happen to want to scre-'"

"Malik!"

His friend just laughed at his flushed face and angry expression. "Ok ok! I was just kidding! No need to take everything so seriously, sheesh!"

Ryou pouted and refused to talk to him for the rest ten minutes they had till class. Then he hurried to show the slip to his actual teacher before he had to go to the classroom 103, which was the advanced dark arts classroom.

xxxxxxx

It turned out that Professor Brain Damage wasn't very fond with the idea of letting Ryou go to a different class, even though he had a permission. His lecture of how he shouldn't have anything to do with the new teacher, since he was a warlock and Ryou was a mage, thus leading to the fact that the subjects they studied had very little to do with each other, had caused Ryou to be half an hour late from the class. How the lecture had taken half an hour of his time was a complete mystery.

Ryou knocked on the classroom door and waited for someone to open it. He just hoped the teacher wouldn't be too pissed at him; he seemed to be the type to get angry easily and maybe curse someone.

"You are _late_," the teacher hissed at him after opening the door and Ryou flinched at the tone of his voice.

"I'm sorry. My teacher gave me hard time and didn't want to let me go..." If he hadn't been looking at his shoes, he would have seen the other roll his eyes.

"Idiot... Well, what are you waiting for? Come in already." He stepped away, letting Ryou in and went back to his teaching just like nothing had happened. Ryou noticed that all the students were packed in the back of the room, as far away from the front where the teacher was as possible. Ryou sat in the front row, near the windows. He didn't want to go near the other students because they were whispering with each other and glancing at him with a bit of hostility. Mages and warlocks weren't exactly the best of friends in this school though some of the warlocks were nice and easy to be friends with but Ryou guessed it was just because of prejudgment.

"Is there a problem?"

Ryou snapped to look at the teacher who was looking at his class with a raised eyebrow, no doubt having noticed that the class' attention was on Ryou and not on what he was trying to teach.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be with the rest of the goody squad?" someone asked from among the students.

"If you have a problem, you take it up with me," said the teacher, leaning casually on his desk. "I asked him here. See the pattern on the blackboard? He actually knows what to do with it and that's exactly why you all have to make an essay titled; 'What does it do, what's wrong with it and why was I so incompetent that I couldn't solve it when a lower level mage could'!" He yelled the rest of the sentence and the class shut up, some were glaring at Ryou as if it was his fault that they had to make an essay. Ryou had always known that some day it would pay off to read advanced dark arts books in his free time.

"And make it at least five pages."

The class groaned.

Ryou had a strange sense of pride from that on, he even raised his hand a few times to answer the questions though he wasn't sure if he was supposed to participate, then again, he didn't know what he did there in the first place. The lesson was much more interesting than curing would have been and Ryou found it to be fascinating so he just listened to every word that escaped the teacher's mouth. He had absently started to chew his pencil again and his eyes became half lidded as he listened in some sort of trance. Suddenly someone pulled the pencil out of his mouth and he looked up only to see the teacher, whose name he still didn't know, holding his pencil and inspecting it before turning to look at him.

"You really shouldn't abuse your pencils like this." The teacher sat on the corner of Ryou's desk and the boy blinked at him, confused.

"Um, could I have my pencil back?" he asked carefully. The teacher smirked down on him.

"Sure." He placed the pencil back on Ryou's lips and he confusedly took it back in his mouth, a faint tint of pink on his nose. "The class ended five minutes ago, by the way."

Ryou blushed full force now in embarrassment and quickly gathered his stuff to leave. On his way out of the door, he finally realized to take the pencil out of his mouth.

xxxxxxx

Bakura sat on his bed in his room in the teacher's dormitory, which was a smaller wing attached to the building. He was correcting a pile of small tests he had forced his students to do. It had came as a surprise of course. He had to find out the true level of his new students somehow and besides, he just loved to see all the students squirm when they saw what kind of questions the test had. It hadn't been an easy one and much to his disappointment many had only gotten their name right.

He frowned in annoyance again when some idiot had written the most ridiculous answer. Obviously most of these people weren't good enough to match his high standards. Bakura had gotten some complains from the other teachers about his methods but he couldn't care less what they thought, it was none of their business how he chose to teach his students. The little idiots would just have to learn to deal with it, and learn the basics of magic while they were at it. When he was through with them, every single one of those brats would be more than ready to pass the advanced state with ease.

Though there seemed to be some hidden talent in the school as well... That Ryou kid had really managed to get his attention by pulling off his ritual magic pattern test with so much ease. Too bad he wasn't his to teach... What did a student with so much potential do in the _mage_ line anyway? Bakura had to admit that he had no idea what kind of mage powers the boy had, as he had never seen him in action. The only idea he had was when the kid had reached for him back in the exam and he had taken the change to see his powers as well. It was there but buried because of lack of practice. If it would be up to him, that Ryou would go through some serious training, but it wasn't and obviously the other teachers weren't going to do anything about it. Such terrible waste of talent...

The reason why he even bothered to care was that he held magic above all else in importance. He didn't exactly have anything else in his life. That kind of waste of potential just made him angry.

"Damn idiots... Can't even see what's right under their noses..." Bakura mumbled to himself. Then, while he was busy mumbling, he got an idea. It made him grin wickedly, which was never a good sign. He summoned his personal favorite evil spirit to get some information for him. He was feeling a bit lazy and what's a better option than to get something else to do your dirty work.

"Just you wait little Ryou..."

xxxxxxx

Ryou hadn't seen Malik the whole day as they had been in different classes but when he entered their shared room at the end of the school day, he was instantly assaulted by the curios blond boy.

"Ryou! Finally!" Malik shouted as he bounced, half flew, to his friend once he went in the door. "Tell me, is it true?"

"Is what true?" asked the now confused Ryou. Malik sometimes hung out with the gossipy people and always knew everything that was going on, though it wasn't true half of the time.

"I was just talking with some people and they say that the new teacher is totally drool worthy, though a bit jerk-ish, and that he has some kind of thing for you."

Ryou nearly choked on his own saliva. "What?" He coughed. "That's not true!" he managed to yell.

Malik tilted his head to a side. "Which one?"

"Eh?"

"Which is not true, the teacher's drool worthy-ness or that he has a thing for you?"

"The second one!"

"So he _is _hot?"

"Er..." Ryou blushed just a bit. "I don't know about that..."

"Ok ok, I lay off now. I can see that you're in denial right now so I'll just have to pester you about it some other time."

Ryou glared. "I'm not in denial." Malik just waved it off and started to ramble on about something else and Ryou flopped down on his bed, listening with half an ear.

"...so of course everyone is talking about him now, and especially those who had had his class already..." Malik's voice faded away as Ryou started to sink in his own world.

"I heard he's only eighteen, can you believe that?" Ryou just nodded like he was listening. "...he doesn't normally mention his name but I heard from someone who stole his file that it's Bakura something..."

Ryou nodded again. "I see... Bakura..." He hadn't really heard what the other had said, except for the name. It somehow left a pleasant tingle in his mouth. Malik stopped and looked at him strangely.

"Ryou?" he tried.

"I see..."

Malik sighed. "Look Ryou! A flying pink elephant is about to fly through our window!"

"I see..."

"And it's rider is a bathing suit wearing gorilla!"

"That's interesting..."

Malik scratched his head, thinking up a way to get his friend snap out of it. "Oh my god! Someone just burned all your books!"

"I- What?!" Ryou yelled and looked around in panic, only to see his friend rolling in laughter. "Malik, you idiot!"

"I had to get you out of it somehow," Malik choked out between laughing fits. Ryou crossed his arms and glared until Malik had the sense to stop laughing.

"Ok, I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "Hey, I think we should go to the cafeteria to have something to eat." Malik just knew that food could cheer his friend up.

"Let's go, I'm starving!" Ryou jumped off the bed and started to head down to the cafeteria. Malik rolled his eyes but followed shortly after. Ryou was like a brother to him but some times he just didn't get his love for food and learning.


	3. Cream

**Cream**

Next day at lunch, Ryou was terribly tired. He had had healing with Malik the last period and the teacher had decided to work her students till the brink of death with a new exercise. It involved a huge amount of magical patterns they had to memorize and a dead frog.

Ryou had barely touched his food and Malik was studying for once; the first signs of apocalypse. Normally Ryou ate his food happily and it was gone in no time flat, Malik on the other hand would rant about some random stuff and not even think about touching his notes until the night before exam. As it was, Malik was going through his notes, silently, and Ryou was dozing of on his food.

The normal commotion was going on in the cafeteria and they could hear how the advanced state warlocks bitched about how they got next to no points from some surprise test, how it had been too difficult and how the new teacher was a prick.

Ryou didn't think that the new teacher was that bad, sure he was a bit harsh and quick to anger but he knew how to teach. Just then he felt a familiar presence besides him and looked behind him, only to come face to chest with the very person he had been thinking about. Ryou stared at the black shirt a while before realizing to look up.

"Um, good afternoon," he greeted politely, making Malik look up from his notes to see who he was talking to, only to start staring.

"Yes, when is your next healing class?" Bakura asked, leaving the polite behavior aside and cutting to the point. Ryou looked a bit confused by the question.

"I just had one and the next is tomorrow..." He stopped to think. "Last period. Why?" Ryou hoped that his friend would stop staring right about now.

"Good, I'll see you then. Have a nice lunch and do something to your friends eyes, they seem to be stuck in one place." Bakura smirked a bit, as if laughing to his own wit and walked off.

Ryou kicked Malik under the table. The other teen snapped out of it and glared at him.

"I wonder what was that about?" Ryou said more to himself than Malik but the blond answered anyway.

"So it is true."

"What?"

"What they say, even the jerk-ness was true," his friend whispered and broke into a grin. "Congrats, Ryou. You are happily on your way to a forbidden relationship with a teacher."

Ryou felt the powerful urge to smack his friend but restrained himself. "Shut up Malik... That's not how it is at all."

"Suuure it isn't... He just happens to want to stalk you."

"He is not stalking me!" Ryou hissed, wanting to yell but couldn't in the cafeteria.

"No, but don't you think he could have just looked up your schedule from somewhere and not come talk to you?"

Ryou frowned. "Maybe he just happened to be around and it crossed his mind so he-"

"Yeah, I'm sure that's it..." Malik grinned at him and it annoyed Ryou without end. "Hey lunch is almost over, we should head to class." Seeing his friend's expression, Malik was quick to change to subject. Ryou nodded and they started to head to class, separating to go to different classes.

xxxxxxx

The rest of the day went by like every other day, except that they got off earlier because of some mishap with the teachers. No one knew what that was about but they were told to get out so they were more than happy to obey. Ryou was seated on the couch of the dormitory lobby, reading a book he had borrowed from the school library. He had come with Malik but the blond had ran off to somewhere, being the more sociable of the two and having more people to chat with.

If the curing teacher had found out what kind of book Ryou was reading with great interest, he would have probably had a heart attack. The book was called '_Encyclopedia of the Underworld_' and the boy found it highly interesting. Professor Brain Damage had some kind of personal grudge against the darker arts, that was probably why he didn't like Bakura either. The rumor, heard from Malik, has it that the teachers didn't get along and clashed in views and everything else on daily basis.

"You do know that you're not supposed to be reading that?" asked Malik as he came back and sat beside Ryou.

"Yes... But this stuff is really interesting," Ryou said excitingly. "I know it's not my business to know these things but I don't think it hurts to learn something else for a change."

"It does if you ask from Brain Damage... You're not doing this to impress anyone, are you?"

Ryou sighed. "Can we just drop the subject already? I don't have anything going on with Bakura."

"Fine..." Malik said crossing his arms. "Can you help me memorize the stuff we learned in healing?"

"Sure, we should learn it for tomorrow anyway."

Ryou closed his book after a while and they headed for their room to study. The insane amount they had to learn wasn't even distantly funny. Ryou had never had trouble learning the theory stuff or memorizing the difficult patterns, Malik on the other hand wasn't so good with that so Ryou helped him out.

They went to have something to eat and took a break, then went back to studying. Eventually they got tired of it and decided to stop before they fried their brains.

"I feel like my brain just died a painful death..." Malik mumbled, Ryou laughed tiredly.

"Yeah... Our teacher is going to be so proud of us..."

"Especially when we come to class like some zombies."

They both laughed before they fell asleep on Ryou's bed, too tired to care as long as they got some sleep before tomorrow.

xxxxxxx

In the morning they dragged themselves to breakfast and to class. Nothing interesting happened, if you don't count the whispering in the halls and in class. The students were glancing at Ryou and some times pointing at him, talking about something amongst themselves. Ryou was beginning to wonder what was going on and felt terribly insecure under all the gazes of his fellow students. Malik seemed to know what was going on but when Ryou asked he just said that Ryou had told him to drop the subject.

Finally it was time for healing and Ryou was glad that soon the day would end and he could go back to his room.

xxxxxxx

Bakura was heading towards the healing classroom. He didn't have a class to teach in the last period today so he could check out Ryou's healing powers. He truly was curios about that.

The class had started a few minutes ago and all the students were in the room already. The room was quite big with lots of floor space and the students sat on the floor, on pillows. The teacher was a middle aged woman who stood in front of the class and was telling the students something or other.

Bakura walked into the room and got the attention of the students, the teacher also turned to him reluctantly.

"Class, this is our new teacher Bakura, he'll join us today. Please work like he wasn't here at all," the woman said to her class and continued with the teaching.

Bakura leaned against the wall and searched Ryou with his eyes. Soon he found the boy sitting on the floor next to that blond who he had seen in the cafeteria yesterday. The boy was looking at him but turned his eyes away when he saw Bakura looking back. The white haired teacher continued to observe the boy through out the class. He found out that Ryou was indeed very gifted with healing.

Bakura gazed at the boy who seemed fidgety under his eyes. He opened his senses and closed his eyes to get a better idea of the power the boy held. He found himself lost in the aura; it was calming, pure and warm. When he ventured further, he noticed that it wasn't all that pure after all, it held a faint taint of something but it was all the more interesting. Bakura smirked to himself. This was just starting to get more fun by the second.

A slight rustling of the students brought him out of his trance like state and he opened his eyes to look around. Everyone was starting to leave so Bakura guessed the class had ended. Ryou too was gathering his stuff and getting ready to leave. Bakura went to Ryou who had just got up and was ready to leave with his friend.

"A word with you, Ryou." The boy jumped a bit at the sound of his name and quickly turned around.

"Ah, ok... Wait for me in the lobby, Malik, I'll be there in a few."

"Alright..." Malik reluctantly left with much glancing behind him.

"So um... What did you want to talk to me about?" Ryou asked, turning back to Bakura. The teacher waited for the rest of the class to leave, the woman told him to lock the door before she left.

"Relax," Bakura said, placing a finger on the boy's forehead. Ryou blinked in confusion before his eyes went blank and he flopped unceremoniously on the floor. Bakura knelt on the floor, touched it and revealed the magical pattern he had took his time drawing earlier. It resembled a bit modified pentagram and he placed Ryou in the middle. For the final preparation, he bit down on the boy's finger, drawing blood and used it to make one final mark on the pentagram resembling drawing on the floor. Then he placed the hand back on Ryou's chest with the other hand and stopped to look over his work.

"Excellent," Bakura grinned. It was perfect.

It was called "deep probe" in certain circles and it was kind of illegal but he wasn't going to start caring about something like that now. Accidents had happened so it was banned but he knew what he was doing, he always did. Unfortunate stuff happened when you played with complicated things, like the mind, especially if you were an incompetent moron.

Bakura placed one of his hands on top of the boy's and the other on his forehead. Once he was ready to begin, he muttered the words he had memorized many years ago and took a dive into the mind and soul of Ryou. It was always the whiteness that came first, then other colors started to appear, blue, light and dark, red and sorrowful gray from the past but none of that interested him at the moment. He was looking for something particular. The faint taint.

It wasn't healthy for one to stay in someone else's mind for too long at one time so he had to hurry. The taint was like a black, small hedgehog, revealing its spikes when he got closer, not easy to approach. After god knows how many tries he got there, into the taint. He was careful not to crush the mind and soul of the boy while he worked, shattering the black taint, causing it to spread around, darkening all the other colors.

Being quick to retreat from the mind, not to spend too long there and cause permanent damage, Bakura was now fully back in his own body and he grinned in victory. The boy looked unaffected but felt different and as he inspected the finger, it had cured itself.

Of course, Ryou could not find out about that, not yet anyway, so Bakura whipped out a part of his memory, placed the boy back to a standing position where they had stood before he had stunned the boy, and snapped his fingers in front of his eyes. Ryou snapped awake, blinked a bit and looked up at Bakura.

"Yes, I want you to come to my class, first period tomorrow. Who do you have then?" Bakura asked as if nothing at all had happened between the time Ryou had asked him what he wanted and now. Technically, to Ryou at least, nothing had happened.

"I have... Oh, no one, free period," Ryou told and Bakura nodded.

"Good, I'll see you then." With that he left, leaving the boy in the classroom. Not that much time had passed so Bakura doubted that Ryou's friend would even realize to worry yet. He grinned and licked his lips like a cat that had just got his cream. That had gone better than expected.

xxxxxxx

On the way to the dormitories, Ryou felt weird. His head hurt like someone had hit it with a gigantic hammer. It had started while talking to the teacher with no apparent reason. He felt a bit dizzy too and wondered if he should go see the nurse. Maybe he was getting sick.

Malik was waiting for him like he had promised, when he saw Ryou, worry came to his features. The boy was swaying a bit as he walked and held his head.

"Ryou? Are you alright? You look like crap," Malik said and reached to steady his swaying friend.

"I feel like crap too... I'm going to our room, I'm not hungry..." Ryou then proceeded his way to their room to have some rest.

"Are you sure you don't want to see the nurse?" Malik called after him.

"Yeah... Maybe I just worked too hard in healing or something, I'll be fine..."

Ryou made it to their room, then he fell on to the floor tiredly as his legs gave out under him. The hit on the hard floor hurt as he didn't have time or energy to stop his fall and he curled up in a ball, not being able to get back up again.

What was going on? He never felt this sick and tired before, not even after working hard in class. Maybe he had been cursed... That didn't seem likely though, he would know and who could have cursed him anyway?

Ryou tried to drag himself onto his bed but it didn't seem to be within his power, he just hoped Malik would get back soon so he could take him to the nurse. This couldn't be good. The nurse would know what to do... Ryou just hoped Malik wouldn't panic when he found him like this, lying on the floor in a pathetic heap.

With these last thoughts of concern, Ryou passed out on the floor, darkness consuming his vision.


	4. Power

**Power**

It was so dark. Where was he? Ryou was pretty sure that his eyes were open but he still couldn't see anything. His head had stopped hurting and he no longer felt so bad; a good sign. Ryou was lying down on something soft so he couldn't be on the floor of his room anymore, but where was he then? Trying to look around he sat up but, feeling dizzy, he flopped back down.

Suddenly the lights went on, blinding him and a person came to the room.

"Oh good, you're awake." It was the nurse's voice and Ryou was starting to see her too.

"I'm in... nurse's office?" he asked and got a nod from the nurse.

"Your friend found you from your room. What happened to you?"

"You don't know? I... just started to feel sick all of a sudden and passed out..."

The nurse frowned. "Well, you got no physical injuries that I could find, and you're not cursed or anything like that. Other than that, I really don't know..."

That was weird. Weren't nurses supposed to know all this stuff? "Oh..."

"You should maybe get some sleep, it's 6 AM and if you're feeling well enough, you're going to school tomorrow. Your friend was really worried by the way so I'll inform him," the nurse told and started to leave. "Do you want a night light?"

"Yes, please." Ryou didn't like to be in complete darkness. He remembered that he had Bakura's class today, first thing in the morning. The night light went on and he decided that he wouldn't miss the class if he could help it so he tried to get some sleep. Though it bothered him that he had no idea what had happened to him, and neither did the nurse. He had some difficulty to go to sleep but eventually he managed that and drifted away into a slumber.

xxxxxxx

"Ryou!" Malik yelled the second he entered the school building.

"Hi... What are you doing here?"

"I heard you might be coming to school so I waited for you. How are you feeling? What the hell happened yesterday?" his friend asked.

"I'm fine now, actually I feel quite good. I have no idea what happened though... The nurse couldn't say either." Ryou was feeling much better now that he had gotten some sleep last night. All the dizziness and headache was gone, he felt more than ready to face whatever was in store for him today.

"That's good. Weird though that the nurse didn't know, maybe you should ask from the curing or healing teacher."

"Yeah, I will, I have curing today anyway," Ryou said and attempted to leave to class so that he wouldn't be late.

"Hey, what are you doing here by the way? I thought your day didn't start until ten," Malik asked and kept him in place for a while.

"I'm going to dark arts class again," Ryou said hesitantly, knowing that he would hear of it later.

Malik grinned. "I see... Just don't mention that to our curing teacher, he'll freak. Anyways, got to go or I'll be late from class, bye!"

Ryou too had to hurry before he was late, he only had a minute to get to class, luckily it was on the first floor. He ran a bit but made it just before the teacher closed the door.

"Just in time," Bakura said, Ryou smiled awkwardly and went in, heading for his seat on the front row. His shoulder was grabbed before he made it and he came to a sudden stop.

"How are you feeling? I heard that you had to spend the night in the nurse's office," the teacher asked and looked at him as if inspecting him. Ryou thought it was weird that he cared; he seemed so cold and uncaring.

"I'm fine..." Bakura narrowed his eyes a bit. "Honestly, I feel much better now, I just felt sick yesterday," Ryou assured and Bakura let go of his shoulder.

"Good, go to your seat."

Ryou did and the class started. All the students seemed to be in a bad mood today for some reason and there was some innuendo from the teacher, about how they should have gotten better test results if they really were in the advanced level.

"Ok, who has read the extra book for this class? Raise your hand," the teacher asked and no one did. "No one?"

"I didn't know we had to read that... The word 'extra' means that we don't have to, right?" one student asked.

"I thought you wouldn't have to, since it's just mostly reviewing the basics, but seeing how badly you all are doing, I really wish you would read it, that is if you don't want to _fail _the next test too," Bakura said. "So you will all have to read it." He took out a huge book with black covers and placed it on the table for everyone to see.

Much to Ryou's surprise it was the book he had wanted for Christmas last year. Malik had got it for him, wondering why he wanted it, and he had read it through a long time ago. The reason why he had wanted it was simply his hunger for knowledge. Ryou hesitantly raised his hand.

"Yes?" Bakura asked when he noticed his raised hand.

"I have read that book..." Ryou said quietly.

"At least _someone_ has. Too bad it's the mage who isn't even supposed be in this class, isn't it?" The question was directed to the rest of the class. Ryou felt a bit bad when he had given a reason to further put down all the advanced state warlocks but it went away when he heard something like 'geek' being mumbled among the older students; now he just felt angry. It was their own fault if they didn't put any effort in their studies.

The rest of the class went by normally, it was interesting like the last time. It ended soon and it was time for Ryou and the rest of the class to head for their next class. When Ryou was backing up his stuff, namely a notebook and pen not owning the book for this class, Bakura came to talk to him again.

"Ryou." The boy looked up at him from his pack. "Since you don't have anything else in this period, I think you should keep coming to this class."

Ryou hesitated for a while. "I guess that would be alright... Do I need to get the book or other things for the class?"

"No, you'd be mostly listening since you're not attending all the classes anyway."

"Ok, um... Can I ask you something?" Ryou asked carefully.

"Sure."

"Why... Why do you want me to come to your class?" He wanted to know since he found it a bit weird that a warlock would want to teach a mage.

"Because you intrigue me," Bakura said and smirked at the slight blush on Ryou's cheeks, caused by the straight forward answer.

"Uh, I should go now..." Ryou told and quickly left the room.

xxxxxxx

After lunch Ryou had curing so he decided to bring up the strange symptoms from yesterday with the teacher. So after the class ended he went to talk to the teacher about it. The teacher frowned at the stuff Ryou told and took his time to do a small inspection.

"I really don't see anything wrong with you, maybe you should have come to me yesterday," the teacher said.

"I couldn't do that while I was unconscious..." Ryou mumbled and the teacher slightly glared at him. Ryou was quick to smile politely. "Well, thanks for your time but I really should get going." With that he left, not wanting to be lectured about back talking to a teacher.

The next class was theory of white magic and he was almost late already. It was a boring class so he just doodled on his notebook through it or faked to be interested. He was just happy that the school day would end after this class and he could get back to the dormitories.

xxxxxxx

Bakura was not a happy fellow after his work day ended. That stupid geezer had complained to him about some students complaining to their parents about him and the parents complaining to the school about making their little babies record look bad. That and the guy seemed to have something personal against him. Besides it was the students own fault if they didn't study enough or lacked the ability. Sometimes Bakura had to wonder if it had been the right choice to come to this school. There had to be something more productive he could be doing with his time.

Then he remembered that he did have his little "project" under work. It made his mood at least a bit better. It was good to know that there was something, or someone, in this rotten school worth his time and effort. He had been on the edge with the boy having to go to the nurse after his probe but that had just been a minor side effect, nothing to worry about and nothing that could cause further damage. As the saying goes; "shit happens" and he had been... worried that something had gone wrong after all but everything seemed to be fine.

All he needed to do now was to wait. Ryou would sooner or later come to him on his own accord and then he would just have to see if his work had paid off. It was likely that it had but one shouldn't be too confident.

xxxxxxx

Ryou had enjoyed his free time yesterday, despite the fact that Malik had pestered him about the new addition to his schedule. Now, however, was time for work again as he was heading to the healing class with the pestering blond. It annoyed him that everyone, yes everyone, seemed to think that he had something going on with Bakura when the fact was that he didn't. So what if he "intrigued" the teacher? It was no big deal, he was sure it was only because of the apparently good impression he had made back then. But no matter how many times he told that to the curios people, including his best friend, they still wouldn't leave him alone.

So now he was sitting across the classroom from his friend and trying to ignore all the whispers around him. It was healing class so they were sitting on the floor and the teacher was going on about something or other. They had traumatized animals in the classroom today and some of them were running around. Finally the teacher gave them a permission to pick an animal and heal him or her. Everyone went around, trying to get "the best" animal, as long as it wasn't the huge snake, and started to work on it. Malik of course, being the weird person he is, went and picked the snake, and Ryou was left with a small bird.

The bird shook violently as if in constant cold and Ryou had no trouble catching the bird as it seemed to be unable to move, aside from the constant shaking. He had just figured out how to go with this when a voice spoke to him. It wasn't a normal voice either, it was a voice from the other side.

_Hello boy. What are you up to with that bird? _the voice asked. It was much louder than Ryou had used of hearing and he had to wonder why.

"I'm trying to make him better," Ryou told in a quiet voice, not to attract attention and spare himself from starting rumors that not only he was in relationship with a teacher, he was also insane.

_Oh? Can I posses it? Please?_

"No. I'm trying to work here." He just hoped the dead could take a hint.

_YOU DENY ME? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? _Apparently they couldn't... Now the ghost was angry too, great...

"No, I do not. Please enlighten me."

_I AM THE GREAT-! WHAT? NOOO! DON'T TAKE ME AWAY!_

Suddenly the ghost started to scream and plead, making Ryou look up from his work. What he saw froze him to the very core of his being and he would never forget it as long as he lived.

Before his eyes the great gates of the underworld were opening. The two gate guardians were dragging them open slowly and some unexplainable force was pulling the screaming ghost in. Now that the gates were fully open, the soul was sucked in, joining to the screaming mass of tormented souls. Even though the sight was horrifying, Ryou simply couldn't take his eyes off of it, this was something he would, hopefully, see only once in his whole life time. Once the ghost was in, the gates started to close, just as slowly they had opened as the guardians pulled them shut.

"Ryou? Ryou! Are you alright?" a familiar voice pulled him out of the trance like state and the gates disappeared. It was Malik's voice and Ryou turned to slowly look at him, eyes still wide.

"I saw it Malik... The gates, they were..."

"Stop chatting and get back to work!" the teacher yelled at them.

"Excuse us! My friend just saw the gates and he isn't in the shape to be doing any work so lay off woman!" Malik yelled back.

"Don't speak to your teacher like that young man! And what do you mean, 'saw the gates'? He isn't supposed to be able to do that."

"Well, he did anyway!"

Ryou realized that he indeed wasn't supposed to see them. He did talk to the dead but his powers didn't include being able to see that far. That caused him to panic slightly and his breathing became irregular.

"Take it easy there Ryou. Just breathe, ok?"

"She's right, I wasn't... I wasn't supposed to..." he said, panic in his voice.

"Does anyone have a paper bag or something?" Malik asked from the rest of the class that had gathered around. Someone summoned one and handed it to Ryou who took it.

This was just too much for him. That wasn't supposed to happen god dammit! It was out of his power! His breathing was starting to get calmer and he pushed away the bag.

"Are you alright?" Malik asked and the teacher had knelt next to him too, looking worried.

"Yes, I'm...I'm fine. That was just a bit of a shock that's all..." Ryou told and tried to smile but it was faint. "I wasn't supposed to and... yeah, thanks."

"Can you tell me what happened?" the teacher asked. Ryou told her everything about the ghost and about the gates. She just looked more and more worried as he went on, with a frown settled on her features.

"Wow..." was all that Malik said after Ryou's story.

"Ryou... I think you should go talk to the teacher of the advanced dark arts, he knows a lot more about these things than I, or anyone else in this school," she said finally. Ryou just nodded, getting up.

"You should probably go right away, ask your friend what we did and do your homework properly," she finished and sent Ryou off. "He should be in his classroom," she called after him as Ryou walked out of the door.

xxxxxxx

The trip to the classroom seemed to take forever but Ryou made it eventually. He knocked on the door hesitantly and waited for an answer. A call of "Come in!" was heard and he stepped in. It seemed that Bakura was working on some tests, sitting behind the teacher's desk but as Ryou stepped in he looked up from the pile of paper. Ryou could have sworn that a look of satisfaction flashed on his face.

"Ryou, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be in class?" Bakura asked and Ryou closed the door behind him.

"I was sent here by the healing teacher... Stuff happened in class and she thought you would know what is going on," Ryou told, now standing near the front of the desk.

"I see... What kind of 'stuff'?"

"I was trying to heal this bird when a ghost spoke to me, it got quite angry at me and then... then I saw the gates..." Ryou finished quietly and Bakura eyed him.

"And this wouldn't normally happen?"

"No... Except for the dead speaking to me, they have done that all my life." He remembered the first time; he had been very young and scared out of his wits that time.

Bakura stood up and started to circle around the boy, looking at him intently and making Ryou feel terribly uneasy.

"Um, Bakura?" he questioned the teacher's actions. Bakura's mouth broke into a grin that scared Ryou a bit. He had this gleam in his eyes that made them look almost as if they were red like blood.

"Oh, this is perfect..." he said finally, after circling a while.

"What is?" Ryou asked, feeling more uneasy by the second. He didn't understand what was going on. Bakura decided to end his circling and leaned on the edge of his desk.

"Say, Ryou... Has there been any other increase in your magical power lately? Like are you able to do something easier than before?" Bakura asked, not answering to Ryou's question and ignoring it.

"Not that I have noticed... Why?" Ryou said hesitantly.

"Let's test it out then, shall we?" Once again Ryou's question went ignored by the teacher as he dug out a small, shining knife. Ryou took a step back.

"W-what are you going to do with that?" he asked, starting to freak out. What was going on?

His question was ignored again as Bakura held the knife up in the air before sliding the blade down his own arm, drawing blood and cutting a rather deep wound. Was he insane?! Ryou didn't need the answer to that question; it was obvious enough to him as he backed away more, only to have his arm grabbed by the teacher with his healthy hand.

"You're supposed to be good at curing, now cure me and see if it's any easier than it used to be," Bakura told, holding up his bleeding arm, not even seeming to care that it must have hurt like hell.

Ryou stared wide eyed for a moment before realizing what he was expected to do. "O-ok..." Ryou took a hold of the arm and began to cure it. It was fine again in no time at all and Ryou was amazed that he had been able to do that so easily. He looked up at the teacher's face. It held a victorious expression as he grinned, showing his unnaturally long canines.

"Excellent," was all he said. Ryou was still looking rather freaked out and wanted nothing more than to run a way from the insane teacher but said teacher was still holding his arm captive so he wouldn't be going anywhere.

"I think I should-" Ryou started but was cut short.

"No, you shouldn't do anything, except come and join me during lunch hour in this same room, I'll have to make some things very clear," the teacher said and approached Ryou who tried to back way but couldn't because of the hand still holding him in place.

"Back off!" Ryou yelled and used his self defense pulse, which was supposed to send the other farther way and hopefully make him let go. It didn't work as planned though as Bakura answered it with his own magic, still grinning widely. He licked his lips and pulled the boy, who was now in panic, closer by the arm.

"I love your power," Bakura whispered, breath brushing Ryou's face, and captured his lips in sudden kiss. It blew Ryou off and he let out a strangled sound as Bakura bit his lower lip, then nibbling and sucking it almost hungrily, and giving the abused lip one final lick before pulling away. Bakura smirked at the shocked boy once more before just disappearing into the thin air, using some sort of transporting spell.

Ryou stumbled back and sat on the floor, unable to comprehend the situation. What had just happened? Ryou touched his lip absently, and saw blood on his fingers after he pulled them away. He licked his wounded lip, tasting his own blood. The question of 'What just happened?' rang through his head as he sat on the cold floor, not knowing what he should do.


	5. Intimacy

**Intimacy**

After just sitting on the floor for god knows how long, Ryou shakily got up, dusting himself off. As he glanced at the clock on the wall, he noticed that it was five minutes until the classes ended. That meant he could make it to the dormitories without anyone seeing him. He didn't feel like staying in school anymore, especially when it meant awkward questions about his shocked state.

Ryou peeked into the hallway, to see if anyone was there, before he started making his way out of the school building. He realized to cure his lip as he walked, in case he ran into anyone.

The events of the classroom played over and over in his mind but he still wasn't able to understand it. What had it been all about? Why had the teacher acted like he had? Why had Bakura kissed him?

Ryou made it to his room and sat on the floor, leaning his back against the door, not feeling like going any further. He didn't want to go back to school anymore. He would have to face Malik in a few hours but he could always try and avoid the subject. Bakura had told him to meet him at lunch but Ryou doubted that he would go, or could go, not after what happened. Though Bakura had kind of promise an explanation...

The boy just didn't know what to do or think anymore. All this had just been pushed to him, no one even bothering to ask what he wanted. No one didn't seem to care either, least of all the one who was the source of this. But maybe it was his fault for being so naïve and wanting to believe the best of everyone, like of a teacher who had the reputation of a bastard but in reality seemed to be utterly out of his mind. How had he gotten the job anyway?

Ryou absently looked at his hands; he had some Bakura's blood on them. He stood up and went to wash his hands in the bathroom. The blood hadn't dried yet so it was relatively easy to get out, but even though his pale skin looked clean now, it felt dirty somehow. He dried his hands on a towel then on his shirt just in case before going back into the room and sitting on his bed. Ryou had wanted the bed next to the window whereas Malik liked to sleep near the wall, just in case the aliens, some times it was flying elephants though, would attack through the window. Why was he surrounded by crazy people?

He decided to get some sleep; maybe it would clear his head. Ryou lay down and closed his eyes, just waiting to fall to sleep.

x

_The boy woke up in his room and looked around quickly. He could have sworn that there was someone there with him. No one was in sight though and he wondered if he was becoming paranoid. Then a voice broke in the room, the words weren't understandable though, only the emotions that came with them. Pride, arrogance, frustrated anger and hate. They burned him to the soul, all the negativity of them. How could someone go on with that many negative emotions and no positive ones at all? _

_The boy found a single tear fall down his cheek. His sympathy seemed to dim down some of the emotions and the voice turned softer, even if just a little. Then the pride took over and reversed all the positive effects of_ _sympathy, making the hate flare up. It was so intense that he almost felt like he was physically choking. _

"_Please... Let me help you." _

_There was a moment of silence and the boy could breathe freely again. _

"_I'm far beyond your reach." _

_The voice sounded so familiar... The boy reached his hand out, as if to comfort the source of the voice even though he wasn't able to see it. His fingers brushed the fingertips of someone briefly before everything became silent again._

x

Ryou woke up, breathing heavily. A lone tear was falling down his face, just like in the dream and he wiped it on his sleeve. That had been just weird. It had almost felt as if he had been awake though how could he have been? It was a dream. He decided that it was because the dreams that start with the one dreaming waking up always seemed more real.

His alarm clock showed that it was ten minutes until lunch hour would start. Ryou bit his lip, wondering if he should go and see Bakura after all. It had the possibility of clearing things up but he didn't want to be alone in the same room with the insane teacher.

So what should he do? Either he stayed here, in his room and pondered about it, or he could go to hear what Bakura had to tell him, but with that option came the change of the other going crazy on him again... But wouldn't it be worth it if he found out what was going on?

It would. Ryou got up from the bed and walked determinedly out of the room. He would have to hurry if he wanted to be on time. His watch told that he was just on time when he arrived in front of the classroom. Closing his eyes for a second and taking a deep breath before opening it. It was unlocked and he stepped in hesitantly, looking around to spot the teacher.

Bakura was leaning on the desk and turned to look at Ryou as he entered the room, smirking at the sight of him.

"Uh... You said you wanted to tell me something?" Ryou asked, feeling nervous and starting to wonder if he shouldn't have come after all. He was glad that there was half a room between them though.

xxxxxxx

To be quite honest, Bakura hadn't expected Ryou to turn up after his little stunt earlier. The boy seemed to be nervous though and kept his distance. Let him be that way then, this was important.

"I want you to stay after school, every day, train your new found power with me."

Ryou frowned. "What if I don't want to?"

"You will eventually because you have no other choice," Bakura said almost casually and turned towards the boy. "If you feel nervous because of what I did earlier, I can assure you that it was nothing personal. Can't say I regret it, though." He smirked and Ryou seemed to try to look angry and embarrassed at the same time.

"I... Oh... Well, I'm not staying after school with you and you can't make me." Ryou crossed his arms.

Bakura pocketed his hands, unfazed by the rebelling boy. "Oh I don't need to. As I said, you will do it on your own accord."

"Why would I?"

"Because you have no other choice," he repeated himself.

"You said that already. How do you know that anyway? Y-you did something, didn't you? After healing class..." The boy seemed to come to some kind of realization, took him long enough.

"Yes I did. It's called 'deep probe', I'm sure you've _read _about it." Of course he left the most important part out, no need for Ryou to know anything more just yet.

"I have... but what does that-?" Ryou started but Bakura raised his hand to silence him, it worked too for some reason.

"Don't worry about it. You have enough things to worry about, believe me. You're dismissed." He turned away and got ready to leave.

"But you didn't even-!" Ryou protested but it was too late, the other was already gone from the room.

Bakura reappeared in his room. He would have class in a few minutes and all his stuff he had prepared was in his room. Those idiots would never know what hit them. Fun class, well for him anyway, the students wouldn't be having so much fun and more complains was probably on their way but it was not like they could fire him, he was the best they could get.

There was something that bothered him, though. It had nothing to do with his job, it was just a feeling anyway. Earlier when he had been on his way to the classroom, he had felt something, it was like a faint emotion but he was pretty sure it wasn't his own. It was invading though not hostile, and it had this distantly familiar feel to it. Bakura decided to shake it off and just concentrate on the now, it probably wasn't important anyway.

xxxxxxxx

Ryou had just gone back to his room after his meeting with Bakura. He didn't want to go to school. That would mean he would have to face all the other people who talked shit behind his back and Malik, he would want an explanation and that was something Ryou wasn't ready to give just yet. He didn't even know the full truth about all this.

What had he ever done to deserve this? Ryou seriously suspected that he had done something horrible in a past life, like destroyed the world, and now karma had come to bite him in the butt.

It didn't help either that Ryou didn't fully understand even the part of it he did know. What did Bakura mean by saying that he didn't have a choice? The teacher knew something he wasn't telling for sure.

Being so focused on his dwelling of the situation, he didn't notice time pass by and soon the bell rang, indicating the end of the school day. Soon Malik burst through the door, looking wide eyed and worried.

"Ryou! There you are! Why didn't you come back to class? Or to lunch? Hey, what's wrong?" Malik ended his outburst with quieter tone, seeing his friend's condition and sat next to him on the bed. "Ryou?"

"Malik I... I just don't know what to think anymore..." Ryou hugged his knees close to himself.

"Shh... Tell Uncle Malik all about it." The tanned teen petted the other's hair slightly. Ryou just couldn't hold it all in so he told everything that had happened very quickly, leaving only small bits out here and there. The other had a hard time keeping up with him but managed pretty well.

"Wow... I had no idea..." Malik said after the explanation had ended. "I really don't know what to say, maybe you should tell the headmaster."

"I don't... This is between Bakura and me," Ryou stated and Malik sighed.

"Well, if you're not going to tell him, I won't either. But, if this somehow harms you in anyway, I will go straight to the headmaster about it, got it?" Ryou nodded. "Good. Now that that's settled, let's get out of here, come on."

"Where are we going?"

"Out, to the town! You need some fresh air. Now get your butt up and come already!"

Ryou followed him out of the school grounds, grateful that he had the other's friendship.

xxxxxxx

"This is an outrage! Not one positive comment during your short teaching career? I'm not surprised." Mr. Spellwright, know as 'Professor Brain Damage' among the students, yelled in his face. Bakura wasn't faced by it and only raised an eyebrow in question.

"Is there something you want?"

"We got negative feedback from the parents. Again! What were you thinking?"

"The brats need more than just the theory side of things. Now _if _you excuse me-" He intended to leave but was stopped by the other teacher.

"'Brats'? Every day I wonder what was the headmaster thinking when he hired you."

"Every day I wonder why I took this job when it includes dealing with morons and teaching idiots." He had had enough of this and left quickly, heading to his room. The other teacher was left staring after him.

Why were people always on his case? They should learn how to mind their own business! All he did this time was in order to give the students some real life experience about dealing with the dark powers. He had told the headmaster his idea and gotten permission to do it and still there were people who insisted that he had done something wrong. It was for the best of the students, not that he didn't get anything out of it.

xxxxxxx

Ryou and Malik had been hanging out in the town outside of school for the whole day now. They had stopped to have ice-cream in a small ice-cream bar. It had been so long since they had last had any of the cold treat and it was nice to spend time together outside of school for a change. They hadn't touched the subject of Bakura or anything else like that after they had left school, which was good because Ryou needed the distraction.

"...and so the damned snake bit me after he was fine and I had to go see the curing teacher and you know how he gets." Malik was telling the story of what happened after Ryou had left the healing classroom.

Ryou snickered a bit. "Yeah, was it bad?"

"The bite or the teacher?"

"The bite, but I hope that the teacher wasn't bad either."

"I lived through both."

They looked out of the window and noticed that it was getting dark so they should probably head back soon.

"I don't want to go back..." Ryou said as Malik got up to leave and looked at him with a worried frown.

"Ryou..." He trailed off, not having much to say. "Listen... I'm sure you can work everything out."

"I'm not so sure..."

"With your brain you can," Malik said trying to sound encouraging.

"...I guess I can't run away either." Ryou too got up and after they paid both headed back to the school dormitories.

x

_A great deal of anger seemed to be coming from the now more familiar feeling source. It was directed towards someone he felt that he knew. It was dimmed down by the feeling of satisfaction that was caused by a memory. He couldn't quite grasp the memory but he felt that it was close, just outside of his reach. _

_This was just like the dream he had before but this time he seemed to be a bit closer to the other presence. It was weird, not physical closeness but more intimate, mental one. _

_He felt a sudden alertness take over the feelings and felt an experimental mental poke the corners of his mind. He let out a wail as the push became harder and tugged his mind. He was being pushed away but at the same time being pulled closer. He reached out for the other and felt a strange sensation wash over him before he was pushed away suddenly. _

x

"Ryou! Ryou! Hey, Earth to Ryou."

He snapped out of it, whatever it had been and blinked at the hand that was waving in front of his eyes. The hand belonged to Malik who looked at him strangely.

"What?" was all he could say.

"You spaced out, just stood there like a zombie. Then you made this weird sound, almost like a moan, what the hell was that?" Malik asked, speaking quickly.

"I... I don't know... We should head back now, I need to lay down..." Ryou mumbled, starting to head towards the school. He needed to get in their room, on the bed and just rest. He was probably just tired. Malik followed his friend, looking worried about his mental state.

xxxxxxx

Suddenly Bakura became very aware that everything hadn't gone as smoothly as he had first thought. There had been a terrible mishap and the worst thing was that he had no idea how to fix it.


	6. Feeling

**Feeling**

Ryou lay on his bed, unable to sleep with all the stuff going through his head at the moment. Earlier that day... Or yesterday it seemed as he glanced at the alarm clock, the weird something that had happened, it had happened again during the short time he had been sleeping. This time it had been stronger than before, the invading feeling of frustration and slight confusion. Ryou felt that he was closer to that other presence, being on the brink of recognizing it. It made him confused that he didn't know where it was coming from or why.

He had thought it through over and over again, coming to the conclusion that it had to be some kind of spell, maybe a curse... He wasn't sure what but it had to have something to do with mind linking or with some kind of forced connection. His knowledge lacked when it came to that, all he knew was that powerful emotions had the tendency to connect people some times and even that was a blurred memory from the time he had skimmed through Malik's advanced level books.

It bugged him so bad that he had started pacing in the room, as quietly as he could not to wake his friend. Thoughts ran through his mind as he walked back and fort in the room.

The emotion connection thing was out of the question since he didn't feel so strongly about anybody. As far as he knew, which wasn't far, mind linking needed the people involved to be in it because they wanted to so that wasn't an option. It was a strong connection that couldn't be easily broken, getting stronger in time and if it was left in place, it could develop into an unbreakable bond of the most powerful kind. Mind connections were, after all, far more powerful than any bodily ones. That still didn't remove the fact that he hadn't made any type of mind link with anybody.

Now that he thought of it, if it couldn't be a link, only option left was mind control. That would involve sharing thoughts to a certain extent but it only worked one way around... And this was different; it didn't show signs of him being controlled or him controlling anyone.

"Argh!" he yelled in frustration before clapping his hands on his mouth, realizing that his friend was trying to sleep. Malik stirred a bit but didn't wake up to Ryou's relief. The boy made the quick decision to go to the library. It was closed at night but he knew a way to get in because this wasn't the first time he couldn't sleep.

On his way to the library, he could feel a presence getting closer. It was a weird sensation in the back of his head, one that he couldn't ignore.

Once he reached the door that lead into the library, he used the lock picking spell he had learned from Malik and got in. As he stepped in, he was prepared to do something to the alarming spell but to his surprise it was already gone. That was strange but he just shrugged it off. The endless shelves of books of all kinds opened before him but he quickly moved behind one that he knew held all the literature about the mind.

Ryou needed something that covered most things for starters to find out what he was looking for so he skimmed the shelf, looking for something that was titled '_The Mind_' or something like that. The shelf was huge and after about fifteen minutes of searching he still hadn't found anything that could help him. Ryou let out a frustrated sigh and glanced around. It could be risky to use magic now, he could get caught, but if it would help him to find what he was looking for then he was willing to take the risk.

"Alright." He went back to the beginning of the shelf, concentrated and patted the shelf. Ryou smiled as the books shook, the feel of his own magic making him feel giddy. One book flew from the shelf towards him in faster speed than he would have liked and once he caught it he was pushed back a few steps. He let out a surprised yelp as his back connected with something firm that felt to be covered with something silky.

"I was starting to wonder who was here at this hour, causing all the commotion and who do I find but you," came a smooth voice from behind him. Ryou bent his neck to look up at the face of the one who caught him and saw the piercing brown eyes of the advanced dark arts teacher, who smirked as Ryou's eyes widened.

Ryou stumbled forward to create some distance before turning to face the teacher. "B-Bakura, um, good evening. I can explain, I think..."

Bakura came forward to grab the book the boy was holding without a word and read the cover. He raised an eyebrow and 'hmph'ed softly before turning his eyes back to Ryou who was feeling uneasy.

"I already looked through this, it has nothing of use," Bakura stated and turned to walk away, handing the book back to Ryou who was feeling even more confused than he had been before. Against his better judgment, the boy followed the other behind one shelf.

"Wait. How do you know what I'm looking for?" he whispered and the teacher stopped to pull out one book, reading the cover before placing it back.

"I'm looking for the same thing," Bakura simply said and pulled out another book. Ryou frowned in confusion.

"But why?"

The other sighed, turning to look at him, putting the book he was looking at back on its place. "Ryou, I refuse to believe that you're stupid, don't prove me wrong now."

The boy blinked in utter confusion, making the teacher sigh again and when he did, a strong feeling of frustration washed over Ryou, it was stronger than any other he had felt so far, making him take a step back, partly because of the realization and partly because of the feeling.

"Y-you mean..? It's you who..?" He had difficulty to form a proper sentence do to his shock.

"Yes. My theory is that something went wrong with the probe, causing some kind of mind connection between us. So far it seems only to connect our feelings but that doesn't mean that it can't grow stronger in time. Well, actually if it works like a normal mind link, it will."

Ryou stared at him with an unbelieving expression and took a step back. "You're kidding..." was all he managed out and Bakura shook his head.

"No. Don't tell me you haven't noticed. That's why you're here, isn't it?"

"B-but how can- This isn't-"

"Ryou, shut up if you don't have anything understandable to say," Bakura told harshly. He turned back to the shelf but stopped in mid-movement, looking back at Ryou, eyes taking a gleam Ryou didn't like at all and he backed away.

"W-what?"

"I have an idea. I didn't think there would be an opportunity to try it but since you're already here..." He let the sentence linger unfinished in the air.

"What kind of idea?" Ryou asked suspiciously, backing away some more. He had a feeling that he wouldn't like this idea.

"Well..." Bakura drawled out, moving few steps closer. "Since the whole thing happened when I was in your mind, the answer could be in there too."

"I'm not letting you in my mind!" Ryou yelled, forgetting that it was night and they weren't supposed to be here. He cried out in surprise when he was pushed against the shelf roughly. He stared wide eyed at the man who had him trapped between the shelf and himself.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you will let me in or I will force myself in. I suggest you take the first option, the second one would not be pretty," Bakura spoke near the boy's face who was breathing heavily.

"I-I don't want to let you... There must be some other way..."

"This is the best shot we have finding out what exactly is going on and how it's going to effect us. You don't need to do anything, just relax, I know what I'm doing."

"That's what you thought the last time," Ryou pointed out. "I don't want you invading my mind."

"Fine." Bakura placed his hands on both sides of the boy's head. It was like a lid had been opened and the other's emotions were mixed with Ryou's. The feeling was sudden and unexpected, making Ryou gasp in surprised and grab the other's shirt tightly. He struggle to breathe as the strange sensations ran through his being. He suspected that Bakura had somehow fought against the link and now that it was open and evolved into something stronger all the feelings came as a sudden rush. Ryou felt his body spasm, felt the other's heavy breathing and how his own mind opened, only strengthening the feelings overwhelming his mind.

"Aaah!" He couldn't help it as he cried out, physical being reacting to the mind. The other pushed further into his mind at the same time pressing closer, still breathing heavily, and letting out some kind of sound from the back of his throat. The further invasion let the blurry rush of feeling dwell deeper and it felt... It felt rather wonderful.

xxxxxxx

Bakura hadn't expected such a strong reaction from the boy, or from himself, when he had prepared to invade the other's mind just a few minutes ago. There had been no way he could have predicted what would happen when he let the link open. It turned out he didn't even have to force much when Ryou's mind let him in willingly. Now they were sitting on the floor on the opposite sides of the small hallway that separated two bookshelves, recovering from the apparent physical toll it had taken. He had little idea why it had been so draining but it must have had something to do with the vast amount of emotions they had to deal with, combined to the extra magical power he had to use without the help of the pentagram and the fact that he had to borrow some of Ryou's in order to pull it off.

"So, did you find something out?" Ryou asked quietly once his breathing had evened out a bit.

"Yes, actually," Bakura said with a nod. "A form of mind linking, I haven't heard of anything like it before but it seems that when I was in your mind last time something of me was left behind as a side effect or something."

"Oh... Can you do something about it?"

"Not without damaging your mind."

Ryou frowned a bit. "What were you doing back then? I doubt that you just did it for the heck of it."

"There was something that needed to be done." It didn't just change the way the mind looked to the metaphysical eye, but also how the power that dwelt in there worked and appeared. Basically the mind's "color" determines the powers of the individual, in all simplicity the light colors for light magic, dark for the dark magic. It's not that simple most of the time though when people tended to have both shades in their soul. There's also 'dark to balance the light', it's rare and often hidden deep within the soul and mind. It's just one of the special and complicated aspects of the human soul and Bakura had trouble understanding that himself so how was he supposed to explain it to someone else?

"Why can't you just tell me? It's my mind you were messing with." Ryou sounded a bit pissed.

"It's difficult to explain but you'll notice it yourself sooner or later," the other said and got up from the floor. "The sun is rising soon; we should get out of here."

"Yeah... Am I going to get in trouble?" Ryou too got up carefully.

"Hmph, no, you're not. Unless, of course, you get caught while on your way back to your room."

"Good... Bye then..." The boy made his way quickly out of the library. After he was out of sight Bakura, who didn't feel like walking and much less like running, just transported himself out of the library and into his room, maybe he could still get a few hours of sleep before he had to get to work.

xxxxxxx

Of course, one can't spend the night awake and expect to be well rested in the morning. This was the case with Ryou who would have fallen asleep while still standing if there wasn't so much on his mind.

Everything just seemed to be so messed up now. This wasn't the kind of life he had expected to lead when he had entered the school. He had thought that he would learn to be a good mage, graduate with good grades, get a job that involved magic in some way, maybe healing, eventually meet someone he liked, start a family and settle down, maybe make it to The Counsel when he was older. He did not expect to end up with a mind link with a teacher because said teacher had done an illegal probe into his mind, have classes with the warlocks, start questionable rumors about him, get stuck in a maze of complicated mind stuff with the teacher and start wondering his own sanity because he, no matter how much he tried to deny it, had enjoyed the shared feelings and mental closeness between them when they were both in the library in the middle of the night. Now that he thought it like that, without the positive future plans, it seemed even more messed up.

"This is irrational, frustrating, _stupid_..." Ryou didn't even notice that he was talking to himself in the middle of a class and that the people were looking at him funny. He did hear the teacher clear his throat loudly however. He looked up from his desk, realizing where he was. With the realization, came embarrassment and with it, the wish that the floor would just swallow him right now.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to say that aloud..." he apologized quietly, sinking further on his chair. The teacher looked away, unlike the rest of the class, and continued with the teaching. Ryou had no idea what he was teaching them. What class was this anyway? He was supposed to be here, wasn't he? He didn't know, he just remembered how Malik had pushed him in the classroom, saying something about getting it together.

Whispers were heard all around him but he tried his best to ignore them. He had more important things to worry about than what his classmates thought of him.

Now that he was thinking back at all the mind business, he came to the realization that Bakura somehow could block at least part of the link in his part. Ryou couldn't. That bothered him. It gave the other the upper hand. He would have to learn too but he needed help. There weren't many people he knew that could help him and even less people he would be ready to tell why he wanted to learn it in the first place.

It wasn't pleasant to come to the conclusion that the only person who could help him was Bakura.

Ryou did not want to ask his help, he was the last person he would ever ask to help him. It didn't seem that he had a choice though.

"I need to go to the bathroom." Ryou stood up suddenly, getting the teacher's attention.

"Now? Can't it wait till the end of the class?" the teacher asked.

"No! I absolutely must go right now." He might as well get it over with now.

"Fine, just be quick about it."

"Thank you." He was out of the room faster than you could say 'Wait, you forgot the permission slip', even if you were fast about it.

xxxxxxx

Bakura was leaning back in his chair, watching as the students worked on the group assignment he had just given. He had never been a big fan of teamwork but it was a part of the teaching program he was expected to follow to some extent. His relaxing time was disturbed by a hasty knock on the door. Bakura knew who it was almost instantly so he bothered to rise from his chair and walk to the door. This was probably not something that he wanted the whole class to hear.

"I was sort of expecting you," he greeted Ryou who was clearly unhappy to be here.

"Er, yeah. Can we speak in the hall?"

Bakura glanced at his class as to see if they would behave while he was gone. He knew they would. "Ok, what it is?"

Now that they were standing alone in the hall, the boy was feeling nervous. "Well, I figured that since you can somehow block at least a part of the mind link, you should teach me to do that too."

"Why should I? It gives me a great upper hand if you can't block it," Bakura said, leaning on the wall and crossing his arms. A spark of anger emitted from the other, making him inwardly smirk.

"You wish to train me, don't you? This is your chance." Ryou too crossed his arms, eyes hardening to match Bakura's, who unconsciously gave his lips a small, quick lick.

"Are you offering me a deal?" Bakura asked, raising a brow. "What would be in it for me?"

"You mentioned something about wanting to teach me after school? You can as long as you also teach me how to block you, making that the first priority."

The teacher thought it through quickly. He had nothing to lose, except his upper hand. "That would include you staying after school every day."

"That would be fine."

Bakura smirked and offered his hand. "It's a deal then." The boy took it, giving it a quick shake. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Um, yeah, got to go." Ryou ran off without a second glance. Bakura went back to his class with a satisfied expression. The boy would have to learn to know better than to make a deal with him but oh well...


	7. Subconsciously

**Subconsciously**

Thank god it was Saturday. Ryou felt like the week had just dragged on forever. The good thing about weekend was, besides that there was no school, that there was no after school, which meant that the lessons with Bakura were pushed till next week. Now he had the whole weekend to mentally prepare for them and forget all that for a while.

Malik had once again hidden all his school related stuff under his bed to avoid even looking at them during the weekend; it was like a ritual of sorts. Now the both of them were just relaxing in their room, not finding it in themselves to go anywhere.

"Do you think that Monday will come slower if I just pretend to wait for it?" Ryou asked from his friend.

"No, I tried that already, Monday will know if you just pretend and come even faster just to mock you." Malik turned to look at the other; his eyes had previously been on the ceiling. "Why do you ask? I thought you never threaded Mondays."

_Oh yeah_... Ryou had "forgotten" to mention about the lessons with Bakura. "I have to stay after school... Not just on Monday, every day from now on it seems..."

"Why?"

Ryou mumbled his answer.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you."

"I said I have to stay after school and be trained by Bakura..."

"Oh is that so?" Malik said, smirking in a way Ryou would rather not see him smirk. "May I ask why have you two made such an... arrangement?"

"I need his help with something..."

"And I suppose you'd rather not tell me any details and just keep this _between_ you two?"

"Yes, you can stop the innuendo now," Ryou told, annoyed. If the rest of the school ever found out about this, similar rumors would spread and he would never be left alone about it again.

"Aw, you're such a spoil sport Ryou... If you say it's nothing like that, I'll take your word for it but that doesn't mean the rest of the school will so you better be careful that they won't find out."

The other nodded. "I know... I'll just have to be secretive about it."

"Oh! Let me help you out with that! We could do an invisibility spell or something!" Malik said, sounding excited.

"No! You will absolutely _not_ help me. Last time you 'helped me' I was green for a week."

"Yeah, but that was when we were both in the lowest level and that wasn't an invisibility spell," Malik pointed out. "And besides, if you thought that was embarrassing, what do you think I felt? I was pink for god's sake!"

"Well, that was your own fault. I don't want your help with this, I'll be just fine by myself."

"It so wasn't my fault, you were in it too!" He crossed his arms. "Fine, I won't help you then. I was trying to be nice but nooo."

"Good."

They weren't looking at each other for a good while, just sitting on their beds, arms crossed and wearing a pouty expression. That did never last for too long as they found it very difficult to be angry at the other and this time was no exception.

Soon they began glancing at each other, lips switching into smiles before they started laughing under their breaths, realizing how stupid this was.

"We are acting like immature brats, aren't we?" Ryou asked.

"Yeah. I forgive for not letting me help you."

"And I for trying to help me."

"Hey!" Malik threw his pillow at Ryou and it hit the laughing boy on the face.

"You do realize that this means war, right?"

"No fair, you have all the pillows!"

The act of chasing his friend first around the room then around the dormitory with pillows certainly didn't strengthen Ryou's reputation as a sane person but at that moment he couldn't have cared less.

xxxxxxx

On Sunday evening Bakura had prepared all his classes, and other lessons, for the next week. Yes, he was a workaholic, even working through the weekends but it wasn't like he had an awful lot of other things to do. Some might even say that he had no life outside work but that wasn't exactly true. He had life outside work now; he never considered teaching Ryou a thing or two as "work". It would be more like a hobby of sorts, a strange hobby. Now that he thought of it, he felt some sort of twisted delight and a shiver ran down his spine. The little fact that the link between them was open in the other direction and he could feel how the boy threaded the up coming lessons, made it all the better.

xxxxxxx

"Oh come on Ryou. Let's go!"

"_You_ are not going anywhere," Ryou hissed to his friend.

"I'm escorting you, be grateful now." Malik proceeded to drag the poor boy down the hall that led to the advanced dark arts classroom.

"No, I don't want you escorting me! Let go!"

"Aw you're so mean to me..." He let go anyway.

"Thank you. I see you afterwards... If I'm still alive..."

"Stop being so negative already, I'm sure it will be fine."

Ryou doubted that but gave his friend a small smile anyway before going around the final corner. He faced the classroom door and was feeling a nervous tingle in his stomach. Ryou took a deep breath and knocked on the door. It opened to let him in and as he stepped in the room, he saw Bakura spinning on his chair. There was something so... _human_ about the sight that it made him feel better.

The spinning stopped as the teacher focused his eyes on him. "I thought your school ended ten minutes ago."

Ryou felt anger rising and crossed his arms. "Isn't it enough that you spy on my feelings, do you have to know my schedule as well?"

Bakura smirked a bit. "Why so angry? A way to hide your nervousness perhaps? I could have sworn that you were pretty nervous before..."

"That is exactly what I meant!" Ryou pointed rather in a un-Ryou like way and huffed, only making the teacher's smirk wider and he rose from his chair to walk casually to him.

"Self control, my dear Ryou. Don't make this a personal matter even if you might not be too fond of me."

Ryou blushed at the way he had been addressed but tried to hide it by looking away. "Let's just begin..."

"We did already, didn't you notice? That was your first lesson, it's the same in everything you do. Magic, life, anything. If you can't control yourself, I'm sure someone else can." As he spoke he walked away, turning his back at Ryou and stopping before the blackboard. "That and the thing about making something personal, it will only distract you from your actual goal." Now he turned to Ryou. "Any questions?"

"W-well, no, not really..." he stammered, feeling quite confused.

"That means you didn't understand what I just told you," Bakura stated, narrowing his eyes.

The only thing Ryou managed to do was blink in silent question.

"Now that's better already. I bet you're questioning my sanity or methods right now, that's good. I might as well be pulling your leg and if you would just swallow it all as someone feeds it to you, you would choke."

"I-I suppose that's true..." The choice of words was a bit weird but at least he understood what he meant.

"Is it? And why is that?" Bakura sat on his desk and looked at him.

"Because-" Then Ryou realized that he was about to say something along the lines of 'Because you're a teacher and teaching it to me', but that was no good at all according to what he had just learned. "But how am I supposed to know when you're telling the truth and when you're not?"

"That's commonly known as using your own brain. You do that and don't just play parasite on mine; you'll do much better that way."

xxxxxxx

"Concentrate!"

"I am trying," Ryou said behind clenched teeth. "It would help if you stopped staring at me..."

"Close your eyes or something if it bothers you."

"I don't want to..."

"Whatever, that's your problem then." Bakura crossed his arms and continued to watch as the boy tried to work on his floating spell. It was a good way to work on concentration because it took a great deal of it to keep something in the air for longer periods of time. It didn't usually cause much difficulty to Ryou but now when he was trying it under the ever so watchful eyes of the teacher, it proved to be much more difficult.

"How does this have something to do with the mind blocking anyway?"

Bakura rolled his eyes and sat opposite to the boy who was sitting on the floor. "What does something that trains one's concentration have to do with something that needs concentration?"

Ryou felt more annoyed now and it didn't help him any. So what that he had learned a vast amount of things during the last half an hour, the teacher was mocking him.

"Fine, I'll help you a bit this once but you will have to work on it in your own time."

Ryou could feel the link open slightly from the other side, letting the calm collectedness of the other drip through. It made him feel calmer too and his eyes slid close as his body relaxed visibly. It was almost as if his mind welcomed the other after separation.

"Don't get too relaxed," came Bakura's quiet, if not amused, voice. "Now, try it again and then you can go."

Ryou nodded and did as told, cracking an eye open to see if it worked. The small ball flowed a slow eight in the air easily. "Good..." The compliment was accompanied by a pleased feeling through the link, it made Ryou feel good about himself and he smiled a bit while watching the ball dance in the air before his eyes locked with Bakura's. He turned his eyes away and got up from the floor.

"I think I'll go now..." he mumbled and turned to leave.

"Remember to practice."

The link closed once again and as Ryou walked down the hall he couldn't help that wonder why he felt so empty...

xxxxxxx

That was... fun. Bakura hadn't expected the boy to be so on edge all the time but that wasn't an inconvenience, more like a bonus. At least he had gained a valuable piece of info during their little lesson. Ryou _liked_ him inside his mind, maybe not consciously but his mind was _very_ welcoming when the link was open from both sides. He could feel how the mind relaxed and was content while sharing with him. Still the boy's conscious mind sought to block him, amusing really.

He wondered though why wasn't the fact that Ryou clearly had trouble concentrating under pressure never brought up before. If it had, the boy would have no trouble with it since he would have gotten the proper training. That just proved the painfully clear incompetence of the teaching staff of this school. Now the boy would just have to learn.

"I'll take care of that." He smirked to himself as he walked down the hall, feeling a bit giddy about all of this.

xxxxxxx

Malik wasn't in their room when Ryou got back, a fact he was grateful for in a way but also would have liked to have him there so that he could rant and complain about Bakura. He was also angry with himself about letting the teacher get to him so easily. He would have to do something about that.

He dug out his homework but didn't feel like doing them now and just tossed the pack aside. He would have plenty of time to do them later. Ryou jumped on his bed and bounced a bit before glancing out of the window only to see Bakura walking across the yard. How could he be so relaxed when he had just spent half an hour torturing him!? Then again, he seemed to be that kind of person who got off on other's pain. Ryou glared at his form though he knew the other couldn't see him and watched where he was going. It was probably the second door to the teacher's dormitory; at least he seemed to be going that way.

Ryou couldn't help but notice how the teacher moved with certain grace and tilted his head to a side, just observing the way the other moved, not knowing what was so interesting about that. Then Bakura stopped and turned to look straight at him. Well damn... He had forgotten about the link for a second there. The teacher could sense him.

Bakura just smirked and waved at Ryou who had yet to look away. He did while blushing in embarrassment and buried his face on a pillow, groaning. The last thing he needed was to get caught staring at the teacher, he probably got an ego boost from it and that wasn't good either.

Suddenly Ryou felt the other's feelings of some kind of satisfaction and certain giddiness steep through the link. He raised his head from the pillow and looked through the window again only to see how Bakura was still standing there, wearing an expression of some kind of smug mockery. Ryou had to fight the powerful urge to give him the finger and instead settled at poking his tongue out at him. Bakura looked to be chuckling at the childish gesture and feeling amused before turning to walk away towards the teacher's dormitory again. The link closed as he did that, leaving Ryou feeling lonely all of a sudden. He wished Malik would get back soon...

His wish was granted in the form of his best friend barging through the door.

"Ryou, you're back! How did it go?"

"Not too good... He was being a bastard as usual and gave me homework..." Ryou muttered as Malik sat next to him.

"I'm sure he will warm up to you soon. Who could possibly resist sweet lil Ryou-Ryou?" The other teen ruffled his hair and Ryou glared at him slightly.

"Shut up and help me with the homework."

"Ok! What do I have to do?"

"I need you to somehow distract me while I try to float something, put some pressure on me." Ryou searched for something he could use and settled for a paper ball.

"Hmm, ok. You know I heard something really interesting while on my way here..." Malik continued to babble on about nothing in particular and Ryou was sure that part of it wasn't even true; like that they would have to do ten pages about the magical society rankings. That had made Ryou drop the paper ball but then Malik had laughed at him so he knew that wasn't true.

After a while he had enough of that and just asked his friend to stop. All the concentrating was making his head hurt. Maybe that would help him do better in his next lesson with Bakura, not that he needed to impress him or anything but if they couldn't get past this practice, he would never be able to learn the blocking.

"I'm hungry now, let's get something to eat," Ryou stated.

"Alright."


	8. Devil

**Devil**

It was late at night but Bakura was still awake. He was sitting cross legged on his room's floor, eyes closed and a new theory forming in his mind, along with a plan of action. He knew what he wanted to do. There was something he wanted to try out to see if he was right, and now was the best time to do that since it couldn't be done during the day; too many witnesses. It was better to be done when both of them were as alone as possible, just in case he was right and it was rare that he wasn't.

Yes it had something to do with Ryou, everything always did these days, it annoyed him but at least he wouldn't be bored in a long time. The boy was probably sleeping right now, which was just good in a way since the mind was more open during sleep but he needed the boy to be awake for this to work in a way he wanted it to. So what's there to do but summon a few spirits to wake him up first, they should be there soon.

As expected, the spirits had reached the boy's room. Now if his roommate would wake up, that would be a slight set back so he had one of the evil spirits do something about that, just a harmless stun that wouldn't leave any marks. When that was taken care of, it was time for Ryou to wake up.

xxxxxxx

Ryou heard faint whispers around him and something brushed past him in his half sleep state. He snapped open his eyes to see a couple of spirits floating around the room. Something was wrong here... Why hadn't Malik woken up yet? He was such a light sleeper.

Before he had time to ponder about that any further, the link was snapped open so suddenly that he found himself taken back by it. It was very different from the times when it was opened only slightly, it was even different from the time in the library; more intense and overwhelming. He had to grab the sheets to keep himself at least semi-still as the feelings made his body shake. The strong feeling of satisfaction that felt like 'Ha! I was right!' made him arch up from the bed and yell out. He was sure that Malik should be up by now but no sign of that could be seen or heard, not that he was able to pay attention to anything else except to the invading feelings mixing with his own.

It felt like his mind was on fire, it was like his mind was trying to fight it off and at the same time welcoming it like a long lost friend. It hurt like a real fire, feeling unbelievably good at the same time. The mind can't go without the body so he was shaking and arching, yelling, moaning and making some sounds he wasn't aware that he could make. All that made him fall off the bed onto the chilly floor.

"...bastard..." he managed to mumble while curling himself into a shivering ball, struggling to breath through the scorching emotions. Why was he doing this? Ryou had to find out. With great difficulty he crawled to the door and started his way down the hall. There was a transporting circle in the lobby, in case that people needed to be moved from there quickly. He could use that though he didn't know where exactly he was trying to go. Maybe he could locate...

xxxxxxx

Bakura was laying on the floor now, breathing heavily with sweat falling down his brow. Well damn. Even though he now knew he was right, this was unexpected.

It was far more intense than back then and he had been taken back by it. The way the minds had reacted had been stronger than last time. The link was growing, and that could form a problem. The strong reaction was also because the boy's conscious mind wanted to block him and keep him out but the subconscious mind wanted to let him in and welcome him. These two fought each other and caused a serious inner conflict. The mind couldn't take the conflict and just keep it in; it needed an outlet. That was bad in the long run for the mind, something needed to be done, preferably fast before it would cause damage. There was just the problem that this was a forced mind link, no one had ever done a forced mind link before in the long history of magic so one couldn't just go and find the answer from a book, it needed to be figured out. Sure it was great to be a part of something this unique but it would be difficult to manage.

Something materialized on his floor, a few meters from him. It was a light pajama wearing heap of heavily breathing and weird noises making boy, also know as Ryou. The boy looked at him with glassed over eyes.

"Stop..." Ryou choked out before he let out a wail. They locked eyes and Bakura could see that the boy was in worse condition than he was, but that was understandable.

"...Now or I'll..." the boy continued, gathering all the magical power he could master with the part of his mind that wasn't completely overwhelmed by all this. It was a lot seeing his condition, his hair rose up a bit as he tried to direct all of it but that was proving to be difficult. His eyes glowed softly in the darkness and Bakura was feeling drawn to that power, to the feel of it and how he could almost taste it in his mouth; if the boy would be in his full power and properly trained, he would be in deep shit if he ever got angry at him.

Bakura dragged himself closer, his eyes going red as he was ready to defend himself if needed. Their auras mixed together and licked each other as they met, creating an invisible wind into the room, making their hair and clothes flap and flow around.

Both of their eyes were now glowing softly in the darkness of the night as they reached for each other, hands connecting and fingers intertwining. The now joined power flared up, filling the whole room, making it impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. The water glass on the nightstand cracked before breaking into tiny pieces, but the water in the glass stayed just as it was, like nothing had happened.

The lamp on the ceiling flapped before the glass on it also broke, the pieces falling on the two. The window cracked dangerously but held together. The physical toll was starting to show as the power slowly dimmed down, leaving their hair in a mess and them feeling exhausted. They stared at each other, unable to grasp the situation. The link was slowly let to close.

"Wow, that was... unexpected." Bakura was the first to speak, Ryou just nodded. A long silence commenced after that before the boy spoke up quietly.

"Why did you do that?"

"I wanted to see if I was right," the other stated. It was pretty obvious that he had been.

"About what?"

"About the link. We will have to do something about that."

Ryou frowned. "What do you mean?"

"It's not good for you to have your conscious mind wanting to get rib of it and your subconscious mind wanting to keep it open. That's one serious conflict there and that's why you, well, we, reacted so strongly when the link was opened. And you know, of course this will effect me too since I'm connected to you," Bakura explained with a sigh.

"Well, what do you think I should do then?" Ryou asked hesitantly.

The other shrugged. "Either you change you subconsciousness, which is pretty much impossible, or you just accept the link and move on." It was as simple as that, though changing one's mind just like that was more difficult. "The block won't help much either in the long run, the conflict would still be there and would probably only get worse."

"You will still have to teach it to me." Ryou's voice had taken a stubborn tone and that made Bakura annoyed. Hadn't he just understood anything that he told?

"That's exactly the god damn problem! What part of it did you not understand?"

"It's my mind! I want to be able to decide who's in there and who's not!" the boy yelled and attempted to stand up but his legs gave out on him and he fell down again, only this time landing on Bakura.

"You are in no condition to be getting up but you could have chosen your landing place a bit better." The boy was lying across his back.

"I don't want to be here either but I don't think I can move much." Ryou yawned. "...I'm tired too." He then proceeded to fall asleep.

"Hey! Who gave you the permission to use me as a pillow?"

"...Shut up, you're giving me a headache..." was the last thing he mumbled before falling to a slumber.

"Well, you're squashing me." That wasn't exactly true, the boy weighted almost nothing and didn't hear the last protest either. With a sigh Bakura too felt how his eyelids had became heavy and hard to keep open.

xxxxxxx

When Ryou woke up the next day, he found himself lying on the floor, head and part of his upper body on top of something warm and moving steadily up and down. The rhythm was soothing and he almost fell asleep again but then the question of why he was laying on the hard surface crossed his mind. Why was he here? Where was 'here'?

Ryou opened his eyes slowly and looked around. The room didn't look familiar but then his eyes spied the advanced dark arts teacher lying on the floor, partly under him. Ryou's eyes went wide and he almost yelled but thought better of it and shut his mouth. Now it all came back to him. Last night, the weird thing about the link... He must still be in Bakura's room then. The man looked so peaceful and almost harmless, sleeping like that. Ryou took his opportunity to study his features and he had to admit that he was rather handsome.

Ryou 'hmph'ed softly; good looking and intelligent. If he didn't have such an obvious attitude problem he would have probably been popular with the ladies, and why not guys as well. The boy then realized that he was being stupid, thinking stuff like that. What did he know about the teacher's private life anyway?

He turned his attention back to Bakura's face and hesitantly reached his hand out to touch it. He wasn't sure why he wanted to do that himself but he didn't stop to ponder on it and carefully traced a finger down the other's cheek. The skin felt nice... Then his wrist was snatched and he let out a startled cry when he was flipped on his back, a hand holding his wrist, and hand, above his head, while the other was just next to his head, trapping him.

Ryou looked wide eyed at the one who was now hovering over him on all fours, he was breathing heavily but the other was looking as calm as ever, only raising a delicate eyebrow.

"Well if it isn't my dear Ryou... Never took you as a person who liked to molest people in their sleep."

Ryou blushed. "I wasn't... That's not what I was doing..."

"Oh?" The eyebrow arched a bit higher. "Care to tell me what _were_ you doing then?"

He didn't know how to answer that one. "I was just... um..." What had he been doing? "Uh... Could you get off of me?" he asked carefully instead of answering.

"No, I'm good right here." Bakura's lips curled into an almost devious grin that made Ryou want to get out of this situation even more. "Tell me, my dear..." He leaned closer to whisper in the boy's ear. "Do you find me attractive?"

A shiver ran through Ryou at the warm breath on his ear and the question was bit of a shock. Did he? "I, well uh..." Why couldn't he say no? That would have just been so simple, just 'no' and he would be let out of this situation because you couldn't lie with the language. You couldn't lie... Ryou's eyes widened a bit again at the realization. "I-ah... Well... you're not that bad looking but um... It's not like... I..." Then, he decided that it would be better if he just shut up.

Bakura chuckled softly, letting go of Ryou's wrist and sitting up before removing himself from his person. Ryou too got up, half expecting to be mocked any second now but it never came. Instead the other turned his attention to a different matter at hand.

"Well, my room is a terrible mess and I suspect that it's near midday by now, which means we have both missed our first classes. This is going to be fun to explain." The last statement just reeked of sarcasm.

"We could just say that we were really tired and slept late," Ryou suggested. That would be true too.

"Of course we could, but you are aware of the rumors? About us? If we are both late at the same day it's going to spread like wild fire and cause trouble to both of us."

Ryou bit his lip. Thanks to Malik he was very aware about that. "What should we do then?"

Bakura grinned and Ryou had a bad feeling. Grinning was never good. "Time skip," he simply said before getting up from the floor and going to his dresser to dig something out before going to a suitcase that was in the corner. He put a watch on his wrist and came back to Ryou who looked confused. He knew, in theory, what a time skip was and how did it work but he had never performed one or seen one performed. He had heard stories about time skips gone wrong, like when a person's head goes forth or back in time but the rest of the body doesn't. Not a pretty mental image.

"Get off the floor for a minute and then just do _exactly_ what I tell you to, ok?" That wasn't really a question and the boy did as told, going to sit on the bed, being careful not to step on the glass. He watched as the other busied around the room, making all the glass fly into one corner and then spray painting a difficult looking mark on the floor and drawing a different one on the wall with a piece of chalk. Then Bakura closed the curtains and inspected the insides of his suitcase, looking critically at something he pulled out before nodding and placing it in the middle of the mark on the floor. He went to tap on the mark on the wall.

"What's that?" Ryou asked, pretty sure that it wasn't part of the time skip.

"A barrier. We wouldn't want anyone to trace this back to us," Bakura simply said. "Alright, come here." He offered a hand to Ryou who took it after a moment of hesitation. Bakura pulled Ryou close to him and they went to stand next to the weird looking thing in the mark. "Hold on to me and don't let go until I tell you to, no matter what."

Ryou just nodded and wrapped his arms around the other tightly. He had no idea what to expect but when things started happening, he did notice. A wind blew up and he could feel himself be tugged up as well before a powerful pull pulled him to all directions at once. It was one of the most unpleasant things he had ever experienced and he closed his eyes as another pull threw him backwards. Or was it forwards? He had no idea how a _pull_ could _throw_ either but that was the best way to describe it.

Then it all came to a sudden stop. Ryou felt sick and would have fallen down if it wasn't for the arms that kept him up. As he opened his eyes the room seemed to be spinning and he could feel how the contents of his stomach wanted to take a trip up his throat.

"Don't you dare throw up on me," came a warning voice and he carefully looked up. Bakura wasn't looking at him but around the room. He checked his watch and smirked a bit. Ryou noticed that all the broken things were now back in their original state and that it was darker in the room than it should be if it would have been midday.

"You can let go now," Bakura told and Ryou did once he was sure he could stand by himself. The teacher opened the door to his room and went to the hall, looking at his watch again before going to the window, opening it and leaning out, checking his watch again. Then he pulled back in, looking pleased. "Good, it worked, everything is in the same time too."

"You mean you weren't even sure it would work?" Ryou asked, feeling shocked.

"Of course I was but one can't be too sure," Bakura told. "I'm the best at what I do; I don't screw up in these things."

"At what you do?" The boy was confused by the choice of words. It might just be him but that sounded like Bakura wasn't referring to just teaching. "What do you do?"

"Now?" the other asked. "Getting a bunch of warlock punks through the advanced level, but don't assume that I have just done that all my life. There's much one can do with my skill and talent." That didn't sound like he was just bragging, more like he was stating a fact.

Ryou decided to drop the subject; it was none of his business anyway. "So when are we?"

"It's three AM. You should get back to your room now. Remember our lesson tomorrow, come straight after your last class if humanly possible." Then Bakura seemed to think of something. "Speaking of which; we should just drop the learning of the block, it's bad for you."

"That wasn't the deal," Ryou told angrily. "If you won't teach me that, I'll just stop coming."

Bakura smirked. "But you will keep coming if I teach it to you?"

"Yes..." Ryou said hesitantly and feeling wary about what the other was saying. "Why?"

The smirk widened a notch. "Then I will teach it to you but... since it's bad for you and all, I wouldn't be doing _just_ that, it's not even the most important thing you need to learn."

"It's the only thing I _want_ to learn, from you anyway."

"Oh but you don't even have a clue what all you could learn." Bakura's eyes flashed red for just a second before going back to their deep brown color. "I wouldn't jump to any conclusions like that if I were you, and besides, what harm can it do if you learn something more... _useful_ while you're already at it?"

"We had a deal," Ryou reminded though his determinate pose was flickering.

"Now we have a new deal," Bakura stated with a smirk. "I will still keep teaching you the block... you will just be learning other things in the meanwhile. After all, we wouldn't want to be inefficient, now would we?"

"You made a deal with me Bakura, you will stick to it." Ryou tried to sound as ordering as he could, it wasn't much but he couldn't do better in these circumstances. Something went through Bakura's eyes and Ryou could see his unnaturally long canines as he grinned. The look made Ryou back away a few steps.

"No, _you_ made a deal with _me_. Don't mix these things up, it'll cost you," the teacher stated. "_You_ have a deal with _me_. _I_ feel like we should alter our deal a bit."

"Y-you can't do that."

"Actually, I think I can. You know what they say about _blood_, don't you?" He didn't wait for the answer. "Of course you do, you are book-smart. Well, I do what I wish since you're already, even if unknowingly, wedded yourself into this, while I still follow our original deal to an extent." He grinned again. "And because your blood is under my control, there's nothing you can do."

Ryou frowned in confusion. "What do you mean? I never-"

"Yes you have." Bakura put a finger in his mouth and pulled it out after a bit. The tip was covered with something red. "You are bound to our deal with blood, my dear."

"What- How..." The boy was beyond confused. How did this happen? He had read about this sort of deals between magic users but this was... just...

"Don't you remember?" The other smirked. Ryou's hand went to his lower lip. That time in the classroom...

"Y-you..." he stammered and took a step back.

"Yes, I didn't know if I would have a chance to use it but you were kind, and stupid, enough of to offer me one." Bakura took a few steps closer and captured Ryou's chin with his long fingers while tracing the bloody finger down the boy's cheek slowly, leaving a red trail on the pale skin. "There's no way out now my dear," he whispered with a devious smirk. Then he released Ryou's chin and the boy quickly backed off. "A free lesson to you; never make a deal with another magic user if you don't know if he or she can be trusted, that foolish mistake _can_ cost you dearly."

Ryou just turned around and ran. He couldn't help it, he had to get out. His own blood that had betrayed him dripped down his cheek as he ran to reach his room as quickly as possible, or reaching his room didn't even matter, he just wanted as far from Bakura as he could get, which would never be far anymore it seemed.

It truly was a deal with a devil... How could he have been so stupid?


	9. Memories

**Memories**

Sometime after running away from the new predicament, Ryou found himself from the floor of the old storage room, just next to the student's dormitory. He didn't want to go to his room just yet, he needed to calm down and gather his thoughts first. So what now? That was a good question...

The thing he should do was to tell someone, like the headmaster, about this but he wasn't sure if he had the will to do that. It's wasn't like he needed to prove anyone anything but he could handle this alone. If he went and told the headmaster, Bakura would get fired and probably arrested too, that would still not change the fact that he would still be in his head, and from prison he couldn't teach the block either. This wasn't the first, and certainly not the last, time Ryou was forced to face difficult stuff alone. He had lived alone for a long time, most of his life, and had never needed any help from anyone, nor did he want it. If he could raise himself then he could survive some nutty teacher too.

If Malik knew about this, he would insist on telling someone or even if he wouldn't, he would be worried and Ryou didn't want that but he couldn't avoid his friend for long. Maybe he could just avoid him enough to think of a way to break this to him, or a way to not tell him at all...

xxxxxxx

His first class was just about to finish that day and Bakura knew that Ryou wasn't in school. He just did. It must have been because of the link that he also knew where the boy was, it was just this feeling in the back of his mind. That disturbed him to some extent but he tried to ignore it. He had given the boy quite the shock last night, he was sure, but he also knew that he could take it. Ryou was by no means weak and could take this if given the time to digest it first. That was also the reason he hadn't gone get the boy yet and made him to go to school in order to not raise any unwanted questions.

Bakura was well aware that he had almost stepped past the invisible line that separated the two options of what to do in the boy's mind last night; 'tell someone' or 'make through this on my own'. He was still in the 'make through this on my own' side but just barely. He would have to be more careful in the future.

He dismissed his class and went to do some final preparations for his next one when someone barged through the classroom door. Bakura raised his eyes from his work, ready to tell the person who had the nerve to just barge in there off but before he could open his mouth, he was beaten to it.

"Where the hell is Ryou?"

Was the pissed off, and slightly worried, question that was almost spat on his face by the angry looking blond student. Bakura had the aching feeling that he knew the boy from somewhere and then it hit him. The kid was the same he had seen Ryou hang out with, what-was-his-name.

"Why do you think I would know that?" Bakura asked calmly from the fuming student. "And next time you want to see me, knock first before breaking my door."

The boy's fairy wings twitched in annoyance. "I know you know where he is. He wasn't in our room this morning and all the shit that happens to him has something to do with you these days." He crossed his arms. "Where is he and what did you do to him?"

Bakura stood up since he didn't feel like looking up at the boy. "More out-spoken than your little friend I see..." he said as he got up from his chair. "But nothing bad has happened to Ryou and if has, that has nothing to do with me."

"That's bull shit!" the part fairy exclaimed and hit his hands on the desk. "You did something to him! I know about the mind thingy you did last time when Ryou was acting all weird! Of course if something bad happens to him it has something to do with you, you bastard! Now tell me where the fuck is he!"

"Calm down and stop accusing me," Bakura hissed under his breath. He would not waste his breath more than that to this half human creature. "And stop being so vulgar while you're at it."

"What are you gonna do about it huh? Oh please don't give me detention Mr. Bastard of a teacher, I'm too young and pretty for detention," the boy said in a most annoying voice. "Tell me where he is," he said in a more serious tone.

"I don't think he wants to be found right now." What? If he wanted to get rid of the annoying brat, he would have to give him something.

"Fine, if I won't go to him right away, will you tell me where he is?" The boy also mentally stepped back a bit.

"No."

"You-!" Now the other just looked ready to charge at him. "Tell me right now dammit! I have a right to know!"

"What are you going to do about it? Sprinkle fairy dust at me?" Bakura said, mimicking the boy's tone from earlier. Said boy winced and his wings twitched. That had struck a nerve. "Listen, your friend is fine, just a bit... taken back, he'll come around."

"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it? As if! I want to see him."

"You will, eventually."

The fairy wings dropped a bit and their owner looked away. When he spoke his voice was calmer. "Look, we have been best friends since the first day of school. I know him better than his own father does and it's just like Ryou to hide away from people when he faces trouble after for so long of just depending on himself. I know he won't ask for help even if he needs it so I will have to be the one to offer it because no one else sure as hell won't. I need to find him first to do that." Now he finally faced Bakura again, almost a pleading look in his eyes. "You have to help me help him, even if you're the reason why."

Something about that moved a part of Bakura he didn't even know was alive anymore. It sort of reminded him of himself, with the exception that Ryou had someone to turn to, something he had wanted when he had been younger but had been denied until it was too late. The part of him that wanted companionship had died a painful death long ago.

"You should check the old storage room near the dormitories," Bakura said quietly, not looking at the surprised boy.

"Ok, thanks..." The half fairy ran out of the classroom.

Bakura sat back down on his chair. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't bothered to get to know Ryou, he just hadn't been too interested in that. He hadn't paid much attention on his soul's scenery either back then, if he had he would have know that there was more to the boy than just what he chose to show to everyone else.

The feeling of loneliness was all too familiar to him as well. After all, his mother had died in childbirth and his father had been crushed by it, finally disowning him at the age of five. Five years of pretending to care about his son, his _warlock_ son who had killed his wife by just being born. Bakura guessed that he had always somehow known that his father didn't love him, hell he hated him, sending him to an orphanage only to end up in another place where people scorned him because of who he was. The other kids never wanted to befriend him even though he did try. Then he had just stopped trying all together, tired of being glared at or mocked ("I heard you killed your mommy.") every time he tried to play with the other children. He was "the kid who killed his mother" until, at the age of ten, his magical powers started to show in a way that no one could no longer deny their existence. The problem was that his father had always hidden the fact that he was a magic user and now when the powers truly surfaced, the young Bakura had a great deal of problems with controlling them. He went from "the kid who killed his mother" to "the kid with strange powers".

Then not too long after his eleventh birthday, his soon to be mentor had appeared at the orphanage's door step. He was the first person to ever give the antisocial Bakura any positive attention, but that hadn't been because he cared for the boy, only for his power.

In a matter of two years Bakura had developed from the kid who attacked his fellow orphans and cursed them with self made curses, to a young man who wielded his magical power like none of his peers could. His "good" reputation spread and soon he was doing all sorts of jobs for other magic users, to build up his experience with his magic, as his mentor had put it. Some of the jobs were little less than legal but he didn't give a damn. The society had never done anything good for him and this was his payback and as they say; payback is a bitch.

Sure his mentor had been a bastard and had quickly become a pain in his existence as he surpassed him, but he had still taught him everything he knew. Too bad that he had been gotten rid of when Bakura was about fifteen, by the only person that even came close to the status of his friend. Bakura managed not to care too much. Why should he? He had been never cared by his mentor and he wasn't about to get all weepy over his memory.

The next class rolled into the room and he was reminded of what he did nowadays. The headmaster had asked him to come and work here, despite his questionable reputation. Maybe there was hope for the world yet...

xxxxxxx

Ryou was still sitting on the floor of the storage, head on his knees, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He jumped a bit and looked at the person but then calmed down as he noticed that it was Malik who was smiling sadly at him.

"Hi..." the half fairy said softly and sat next to the other. "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Thinking... and hiding, kind of..." Ryou looked away from his friend. "How did you find me?"

"Bakura told me."

Now Ryou snapped his eyes back on his friend, a disbelieving look in them. "Bakura? Why would he do that..?" The question was more directed to himself than to his friend as he frowned and looked away again.

Malik shrugged. "I'm not sure, I guess it was something I said. Do you want to tell me what's going on?"

"No..." Ryou answered truthfully and the other sighed.

"I can't help you if I don't know what's going on, you know."

"I don't want you involved in this and stay clear from Bakura. He's... dangerous..." The last thing he wanted was to get Malik in trouble because he wanted to help him. He appreciated the offer and the willingness to be there for him but his friend couldn't be risked just because he had problems.

"Ryou... If it's that bad then-" Malik was interrupted when Ryou suddenly got up.

"No! Stay out of this! I don't want you in trouble because of me!" He turned to storm off but his hand was grabbed, keeping him there.

"You're the only person I would be willing to get in trouble for." Malik smiled warmly. "So you better just forget about not involving me right now."

Ryou just stared at him for a second longer before hugging him tightly and crying against his shoulder, letting the unshed tears fall now that he could let his strong exterior fall, only in front of Malik. "Thank you... Thank you... for being my friend..."

The other smiled and wrapped his arms around the crying form. "I'm the best friend a person could hope for, I know. Hush now, everything is going to be ok..." he whispered and rubbed soothing circles on the boy's back.

"...thank you..."

"Sshh, please don't cry."

It took Ryou a while to calm down again and when he did, he was led to their room gently. Then Malik insisted that he had to rest and go to sleep, tugging him in. Only then Ryou realized that he really was very tired after staying up for so long and went to bed without much objecting. Sleep took over him quickly and the other offered to stay by him as he slept, telling him that it would all be ok. It was the last thing he heard when he fell asleep.

x

_Sorrow..._

_A young boy was standing on the doorstep of a large building, watching the retreating back of a man. The man didn't look back._

_Loneliness..._

"_Can I play with you?"_

"_No!"_

"_I heard you killed your mommy." _

"_That's not true..." _

_Anger..._

"_Aahhh!" A horrified scream came from a child as he watched a green tentacle grow from his forehead. The same boy from earlier, only older this time, was standing there, a cruel grin on his childish features. _

"_Well, you know what they say about payback. Stay out of my way because next time you're dead," the child said. The words sounded weird coming from a kid his age, the look in his eyes was so much older than it was fitting for someone so young. _

_An image of an older man by the door, offering to take the child with him. _

_Another man, younger looking this time, not human. Saying something about convenience reasons, grinning and showing a pair of fangs._

x

Ryou sat up on his bed. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were wide. What was that? It wasn't an ordinary dream... Malik had fallen asleep on the floor next to his bed. Ryou would have smiled at the sight if he wasn't so shocked about all the things he had just seen. That had been just like the times when he had unknowingly gotten Bakura's emotions through the mind link, only with actual images this time. Then it hit him.

Memories...

He had to see Bakura.

xxxxxxx

Bakura snapped awake when one of his students spoke to him.

"Uh, teacher? Are you awake?"

He shook his head to clear it before directing a piercing gaze at the student. "Was there something you wanted?"

"N-no, not really. The class just ended and I thought... yeah, bye..." With that the student left quickly to go after her friends.

The truth was that he had been asleep, he just wondered for how long. It must have been because he hadn't slept last night... There was a weird feeling in the back of his mind that refused to go away. Like his privacy had been invaded but not in a bad way, if that made any sense.

Wait... Mind, privacy... The mind link... Ryou!

"Shit!"


	10. Distance

**Distance**

Ryou was set to find Bakura and decided to check from the classroom first. The other's memories had told him so much and he felt like he could understand now, behavior, motives maybe. The pain and loneliness had resembled his own so much that no matter what kind of person Bakura was now, no one deserved to go through any of that and who would be perfectly sane and "normal" after something like that in their past.

Despite the similarities, Ryou had had it easy; his father hadn't completely abandoned him as a child, just sort of started avoiding him after his mother had died. Ryou had made friends; he had someone who cared about him. Bakura had no one. He vaguely wondered if that man who had offered to train him or that other man with the fangs had been close to Bakura, friends maybe? Had they cared for him? The mere thought of never having anyone there who cared pained Ryou, it almost felt like physical pain.

He had often been told that he was too sensitive, too quick to forgive and too willing to give second chances, but that was just him, he couldn't help it. Compassion was something he had always hoped for and eventually gained, he wanted to be able to give that to someone else who needed it too, to anyone who needed it. Compassion and companionship.

He turned in a corner and almost collided with someone. Ryou looked up, amazed by the fact that he had been able to stop on time. "Bakura... I-"

"Let's go somewhere to talk," the teacher said and grabbed Ryou's arm, dragging the boy with him. Ryou let him since the hallway wasn't the best place to have a meaningful chat and soon found himself in a cleaning closet. The dark, small room was a strange choice of location but at least it was private and no one was likely to walk in on them.

They just stood there for a long while, facing each other but keeping as much distance as possible, which wasn't very much in the small space. Bakura leaned against the door while Ryou had his back on the back wall, both thinking what to say first and waiting for the other to start.

"How much did you see?" the one against the door spoke up.

"Not much... Just random flashes. Was that... Did that really happen?" the boy asked carefully.

A small nod. "That was not something you were supposed to see."

Ryou bit his lip, nervous about what he was going to say. "I didn't mean to... You... you must have gone through a lot..." The other said nothing so he decided to continue. "Was that man... the one who left you, your father?"

Bakura's eyes narrowed. "That does not concern you. What happened in my own past is my business and no one else's." He was tense and on guard, resembling a cornered animal, ready fight his way out if need be. Ryou quickly avoided looking in his eyes and looked down, trying to appear less threatening.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." A quick glance at Bakura before he spoke quietly. "After my mother and sister died, my father was crushed and since I resembled my mother more and more every day he couldn't take it and was away on business trips and such a lot. He was hardly ever there and I was pretty much alone most of my childhood, just taking care of myself." He glanced at the other again who still looked wary but didn't glare so much anymore. "You might not want to hear this but after what I saw... I felt like I could understand you better and-"

"Spare me the 'I know what you went through' –speech," Bakura said harshly. "I have heard enough of that for one lifetime already. You don't know shit and I don't need your pity," he spat. "What you saw will never leave this room and we will not discus it again, understood?"

Ryou did something he wasn't even expecting himself to do and reached to touch Bakura's face, gently and hesitantly. He didn't pull away even when the other looked about ready to bite his hand off, just looked him in the eye, trying to convey all his will to try and understand, and that, despite all the problems the other had caused, he was still ready to forgive him and offer companionship.

The other didn't pull away from his touch, not that he had much room to do that, just stared in some sort of disbelief and wariness, once in a while glancing Ryou's hand like it might be some kind of threat. Ryou smiled at him sadly; this must have been the first time someone was ready to be there for him.

"I'm not saying that I fully understand what you went through... I-I just want you to know that if... if you ever need-need someone t-to..." Why was this so difficult? He had edged a bit closer as he spoke, feeling drawn to the disbelieving depths of the slightly widened eyes. "...to be there o-or..." Their faces were so close now and it became increasingly difficult to concentrate on what he was saying, to concentrate on anything else except the eyes that looked lost. Bakura had pressed himself against the door, hand searching for the handle but stopping when Ryou gently placed his other hand on his.

"...B-back off..." It felt so weird to hear the ever so confident teacher stammer with no strength in his voice.

"I wanted to let you know..." Ryou trailed off, faces only centimeters apart, eyes becoming half lidded. And then...

Hand found the door handle and they both fell back, out of the door.

Eyes widened as they laid on the floor in a heap of limbs, lips having connected when they hit the floor. Neither moved or breathed, just stared each other in the eye, unable to comprehend the situation. It was like their brains had decided to have a coffee break right then. There was no one in the hall as everyone was in class, which was good because if anyone had seen, they would have been in serious trouble.

Brains came back from coffee break and Ryou hastily pushed himself off of Bakura who sat up just as quickly, both gasping for air. The boy backed away from the other, sitting back against the opposite wall, eyes still wide and having trouble to believe that just happened.

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, it just..!" he hurried to apologize. "...you know, sort of happened!" What was he doing back in the closet then?

Bakura too still sat on the floor, staring. "I would have never thought that you had it in you."

"Huh?" Was Ryou's oh-so-intelligent comment before he realized what the teacher was referring to. "I didn't plan that! It just felt like the right thing to do at the moment! It's not like I... It's not like I_ wanted_ to kiss you or anything!" At least he didn't think he did... "I just wanted to... After I saw that- I mean that your behavior makes more sense now and I just... Felt that I should-! Let you know and- you know! I-!"

"Ryou, shut up."

"Ok..." He didn't know what he was trying to say anyway and was starting to rant.

"Look, I don't want the 'I'm here for you' -speech either. I only get one from people who either pity me from some reason or-" Bakura paused to give the boy a look. "-want to get in my pants."

Ryou's jaw dropped at the implication. "I'm not a part of either of those people!" he exclaimed. "Why would I want to sleep with you?!" Just then the classesended and the first people who opened the doors heard his high pitched yell and stopped to stare at Ryou who had stood up and yelling at Bakura who still sat on the floor.

The boy looked at the students and blushed in embarrassment, looking away. Bakura got up from the floor and dusted himself off before turning to all the staring students.

"I trust you all have classes to go to," he said with a raised eyebrow that hinted that he was expecting them to run along and fast. They turned away and hurried to where-ever they needed to go, whispering with each other after they had gained some distance to the two and thought that they wouldn't hear.

The two stood there for a while, Ryou being still red.

"I have a class to teach and believe that you should be attending yours," the teacher said, voice and face expressionless now.

"I think I just skip today..." the boy said, not looking at the other.

"Just remember to come to our lesson after school." Bakura turned to leave and Ryou just stood there before he too left to go to his room, wondering what had gotten into him in the closet. He wasn't really about to kiss the other, was he? He unconsciously raised his hand to touch his lips and turned pink again.

xxxxxxx

Out of all the reactions Bakura had expected to get, that had been the most unlikely one. Yet... It had happened anyway, go figure. He hadn't just known how to react, back in the closet. That was the first in many ways; for one he _always_ could handle any situation, yet in the closet, he hadn't been able to do anything when the boy had so willingly offered to understand and be there, even after all the times he had proved to be a complete bastard. He was pretty sure that no one else would have done that, no one else had ever done that. First time for everything...

"I swear that kid is some kind of saint..." He didn't realize that he had muttered that out loud but didn't care. His personal angel in disguise... Bakura snorted at the thought and got a few weird looks from his students. "Yeah right..." Since when had the boy become his anyway? Well, technically at the moment he had made that deal with him.

And what was with the kiss? He could have sworn that Ryou was going to kiss him in the closet, though the boy had denied ever wanting to do such thing. He must be in denial about it himself, after all, if Ryou wasn't going to kiss him, what the hell was he going to do then? Head-butt him?

It had been so unlike Bakura to go all... weak like that. It wasn't like he had never been kissed before, but the difference was that it had always been about lust. This time, if Ryou had truly kissed him and not just accidentally landed on top of him like that, it would had been about something else entirely. What exactly, Bakura didn't know but it wasn't lust.

That sort of scared him... Lust he could deal with but anything deeper was unfamiliar to him. People were naturally scared of things they didn't understand.

He noticed that he should now give his students homework before they could slip away from him. Maybe he could give some extra homework since he was in such a _good_ mood. "Ok! Read chapters ten to fifteen, we'll be having a test tomorrow and finish your group assignments, you have to be ready to present them by... Thursday. Finish copying the stuff on the board before the bell, oral test about it people!"

"Excuse me but isn't that a bit much? I mean two tests tomorrow and the assignment..." one of the students asked carefully.

"No, _of course_ not." Bakura grinned, flashing his unnaturally long canines, giving his 'question my authority and I'll bite your heads off' -look. "You all live in school, what else would you do than study?" The bell rang. "No one leaves until the stuff on the board is in your notebooks!" The class groaned quietly but no one left. "Oh don't be like that, this is _all_ for your own good." And for his own amusement.

Eventually they all got the copying done and were allowed to leave, it was the last period of the day and all were in a hurry to get away. Bakura set to wait for Ryou to get there. The knock on the door didn't let him wait for long.

"It's open!"

The door opened and the boy stepped in, closing the door behind him. Ryou came to the desk and glanced at the board full of small writing, reading the first few lines and getting caught into reading it all. Bakura watched the boy with interest as he seemed to suck in all the information. Then he turned his eyes on Bakura, them shinning with some kind of excitement.

"You're teaching this to your class?"

"Trying to anyway." The teacher shrugged.

"Can you give me a moment to copy it?" Ryou pulled a notepad and a pencil out of somewhere. Bakura took a hold of the notepad and saw the small transporting circle on it, raising an eyebrow at the boy who smiled sheepishly. "Copied that from you, just in case I needed to write something down."

Bakura nodded. "Not bad. Go ahead, you're coming to my class tomorrow anyway. Test about it."

"Do I have to take it too?"

"No, but I would prefer if you did." He looked at Ryou who, surprisingly, blushed under his gaze. Bakura took careful notice of this. It seemed that the whole closet incident had affected the boy too... He smirked a bit.

"Tell me something; I haven't exactly been nice to you so why did you offer to 'be there for me' back in the closet?"

Ryou glanced at him. "Well, I just... I sort of know what it feels like to... lose family and be left alone so I..." He trailed off.

"Hm, offer noted and appreciated."

The boy directed his surprised eyes on him and opened his mouth to say something but was stopped by Bakura's finger. Ryou glanced at the finger, eyes wide, and then back at Bakura.

"But... that doesn't mean I'm going to take it," the teacher continued, eyes never leaving the other's. "That kind of things get in the way and friendship, or anything like that, is not really my thing." The boy didn't say anything, not that he could with Bakura's finger on his lips, just listened, eyes wearing an expression of sympathy.

The finger was removed and Bakura turned away to reach for a book on the desk. He then handled it to Ryou who took it, looking confused.

"You should read this, found it from among my books. It deals with the mind. I don't feel like this today so you can go." Then he turned away completely, waiting for the boy to leave him alone. Instead a hand carefully landed on his shoulder.

"Bakura? Are you-?"

The teacher turned around quickly. "Just go already!" he yelled and Ryou stepped back and let go. "Go!" He pointed at the door. Ryou looked hurt but turned to leave.

When the boy was gone Bakura sat on his desk, holding his head with one hand. Friends, lovers, whatever, they were all weaknesses and nothing good ever came from having any of them. His mentor had taught him so on early age. One couldn't afford to lose focus, it would never lead to anything good. He couldn't afford that. Couldn't afford to give the boy a chance to sneak into his life, his heart. It seemed that Ryou would have a damn good chance to pull that if given the chance, he was already in his mind after all. The best solution was to push him away while he still could...

xxxxxxx

Ryou got back to his room, confused about the teacher's antics. What had that been about? It had almost seemed like there was something there, that had changed, but then Bakura had just pushed him away. He seemed to be so... scared about Ryou's companionship offer...

"Ryou! Hi! Hey I heard so- What's wrong?" Malik stopped his attack when he saw Ryou's thoughtful and worried expression.

"Oh..." The boy flopped on his bed, looking down. "Just something with Bakura... I don't really understand him at all... I thought I could but..." Or maybe he could... If Bakura hadn't had any friends, ever, then it would kind of make sense that he was afraid to let people close. Ryou looked back up at his friend. "What were you saying?"

"Oh just a rumor, I'm sure," Malik said and Ryou already regret ever asking. "I heard from this one guy that you had yelled something about wanting to sleep with Bakura in the middle of a hall. I was just wondering-"

"I-! I asked _why_ would I want to sleep with him!" Ryou exclaimed. "I did not say that I wanted to!" This was exactly the reputation he had always wanted... Now he was the kid who wanted to sleep with his teacher...

Malik raised his hands. "Ok, ok, don't get so worked up about it. But... why did you need to ask that anyway?"

Ryou managed to calm down a bit. "He hinted it..."

"That you should sleep together?"

"What? No! That I wanted to get in his pants! I don't even know how that came up, or yes I do, kind of... But I don't want to talk about it!"

"Fine, I'll drop the subject..." Malik sounded a bit disappointed.

Ryou was glad he did, that was not something he wanted to discuss right now. He needed to think, and maybe do some schoolwork...


	11. Sound

**Sound**

Ryou just had to go to school the next day because he didn't want to skip too many classes, someone would get suspicious. And besides, Malik had insisted that he would, instead of brooding in their room all day. Ryou had been angry at his friend for dragging him out of his sanctuary. He had got stares and had been pointed at by people all day but he failed to stay angry at Malik for too long because his glare was making most people to stop staring or pointing. Ryou had pointed out that he could have done that himself too but then his friend had laughed at him and told that he looked about as threatening as a kitten when he glared, so Ryou had wisely let him do the glaring, though he would probably never forgive his friend for making such a statement. He so was more threatening than a kitten!

Even though it was indeed good to get out of the room and at least attempt to get back in his routine, that still didn't stop Ryou feeling like dying when there was a loud announcement that he was wanted in the headmaster's office. Everyone in the class he was in at that moment, looked at him with annoyingly knowing expressions and to make matters worse for the poor boy, who else but Bakura was told to come and see the headmaster in the same announcement. Everyone started whispering and throwing the knowing looks at him when Ryou's face seemed to want to turn red and pale at the same time.

As he walked out of the classroom, feeling the curious eyes on his back, he felt like he knew what this was about but hoped that it wasn't about that. He could have sworn that all his classmates got up from their seats to see him walk down the hall though he tried to ignore it.

In the lounge of the office, where Ryou just realized that he had never been in, were a couch and a low table and a desk for a nice looking lady who smiled at him as he entered.

"Please take a seat; you'll be called in soon," the woman informed and Ryou nervously smiled back at her before sitting down. Soon the door to the lounge opened again and the very source of everything messed up in Ryou's life came in. The lady smiled again and gestured the teacher to sit down. He did, giving the woman a curt nod.

"Do you know what this is about?" Ryou asked quietly, glancing at the other.

"Your guess is just as good as mine."

That only managed to confirm Ryou's suspicions and didn't lessen his worries any, though he suspected that it wasn't meant to. At least the other was still speaking to him... even though he didn't look at him as he did. The door to the office was opened and a man peeked out. He didn't look as old as Ryou had suspected, in fact he looked rather young to be leading the school. The man opened the door fully and gestured them in with a polite smile. They did and sat down in front of the large desk as the man sat on the other side of it.

"Now, do you know why you are here?" he asked, eyes pouncing between the two.

Bakura shrugged. "Why don't you enlighten us."

Ryou glanced at him with a frown, wondering how he could sound so relaxed about this but was glad that he hadn't had to say anything yet. The headmaster took out a paper from his drawer.

"I have received a complaint from Mr. Spellwright, considering you-" A nod towards Bakura "-stealing his student and teaching him during the time he should be in his class."

"What? That old thing?" the teacher in question asked. "That did happen but only once and I wasn't trying to 'steal his student'. Is that what this is about? Because if that's the case-"

"Please calm yourself," the other man interrupted. "That's not all but I just felt like I should bring it up since you're already here. You see, that's not against any rule, but you should know that older teachers, like Mr. Spellwright, are not as open minded about that as the younger generation is. If you pull... that kind of stunt, it will raise objections so I recommend you to be more... considerate, shall we say, when doing things like that," he finished with a small smile. "I know that isn't your forte but I ask you to try. It would be for the better if all of you got along."

"It's not _my_ fault if that old fool disapproves, he doesn't like me anyway no matter what I do," Bakura stated, sounding rather rude but the other man didn't seem to be phased by it and just smiled again, looking understanding.

"I know and I have brought that up with him...-"

From that on Ryou stopped listening since it didn't seem to have anything to do with him and looked around the room. A huge bookshelf, a pile of paper on the floor, photographs on the walls, nothing interesting. Not the neatest room but kind of comfortable looking.

"Now Ryou, you must be wondering why you are here," the headmaster's voice asked and the boy turned his attention back to the man.

"Um, yes?"

"Well, I'm actually a bit interested to know something considering you both." The man smiled and Ryou glanced at Bakura only to see that he had his eyes on the man in front of them.

"You see, I heard some interesting rumors are spreading among the student body," he continued. "Are you aware of them?"

"We are," the teacher spoke for them both. "None of them are true though."

"Ah that's good and just what I was hoping to hear. Though-" The headmaster looked more serious now. "-I'd wish that kind of rumors wouldn't spread at all. You do realize what they can do to the school's reputation, don't you?" He paused. "I would hope that you wouldn't give any of those rumors a reason to be born, as untrue as they might be. Am I making my point clear?"

They both nodded and the polite smile came back on the man's face. "Ryou, you have been awfully quiet. How's school? I have heard some good things about you from your teachers."

"Uh, school's fine thank you..." Ryou wasn't sure how to react to the chatty tone. "I guess I'm doing pretty good..."

"Yes, yes, keep it up. You, Bakura, should maybe cut your students a slack once in a while. The parents aren't all that happy."

"They will be once their little darlings pass the finals with flying colors," the teacher just said but the headmaster seemed to be happy with that.

"Good then. Oh I must be keeping you, you may go."

They got up and exited the room silently. That had gone so much better than Ryou had expected...

"See what happens when you don't watch your mouth," Bakura said as they walked down the hall. Ryou looked at him with disbelief but he was facing the hall.

"Excuse me but you were the one who brought it up, I wouldn't have yelled anything like that if it weren't for you."

"It's your fault if you can't take a joke. You were the one who got all freaked out about it, I was only teasing you."

"Well, you shouldn't joke about something like that. How did you think I would react? You really can't blame me." The boy was starting to get angry now. It wasn't like it was his fault; in fact, he didn't think it was his fault at all.

"Yes I can. It's because of your over reacting that the headmaster heard about it and now he's suspicious. It's not my fault if you can't shut your trap when you should," the teacher spat but kept looking forward as he spoke. Ryou was almost fuming now. Today was not a good day for him and he didn't need to hear any of this.

"You can't just roll all the blame on me," he said through clenched teeth. "I was doing just fine and wouldn't have never even said anything like that before you came along and messed everything up."

Bakura stopped on his tracks. "I'm not the only one who has messed something up. If you hadn't gone all emotional on me about every fucking thing we wouldn't have any problems in the first place."

"I'm so sorry for being a human!" Ryou yelled. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you? I even tried to be nice to you despite all the things you put me through but _noo_! You can't possibly act like an actual person for once and drop the evil hermit teacher act! You acted like I had offered to assist you on suicide or something!"

"Shut up!" Bakura yelled, losing his cool and turning to yell directly at Ryou. "I already told you to watch your mouth! What the hell do you want? To be my _friend_?" he asked in a snarl and approached the boy who backed off, realizing that maybe he _should_ watch what he said and who he said it to. The teacher looked pissed, everything left of his calm was gone and his eyes kept flashing red.

"I-" was all Ryou had to say or could say before his back hit the wall and one hand well placed hand trapped him. "What are you-?"

"Is this what you want?" Bakura whispered lowly, now blood red eyes gazing down on Ryou's frightened brown ones, and slipping his other hand inside the boy's shirt. The cool fingers traced his side and one finger went under the jeans' waist line.

"N-no." The touch made the boy shiver even though he tried to regain his composure and push the hand away.

"No," Bakura echoed, breath brushing the other's face. "What is it then? What could you possibly try to achieve?"

"I-I... Maybe I just believe that there's some good in you... under all the layers..." Ryou said quietly once the hand was removed from his person though his personal bubble was still being invaded.

"Good... in me..." came the echo again and the boy was relieved to see spots of brown in the red eyes.

"And... and I really would like to be your friend..." Ryou continued and the amount of brown increased. "..If you let me..." Now the other stepped back, his normal eye color firmly in place and Ryou couldn't help the relieved sigh that escaped him. There was a moment of silence before Bakura shook his head a bit, looking almost amused about something.

"I probably will never be able to understand you."

Ryou frowned at his amusement but decided that it would be better not to mention it and pushed himself off the wall he had been pressed against. "Feelings mutual..." He mumbled; this guy was clearly unstable. This got a chuckle from the clearly unstable guy.

"Let's get out of the hall before you yell something that will get us in trouble again," Bakura said, smirking.

"Yeah or before you give me a reason to yell," Ryou shot back but began walking the rest of the way back to class with the other until they had to separate their ways.

xxxxxxx

It was a small miracle that the boy didn't show up to his class the next day. But then again, he wasn't obligated to by anything since the deal they had only considered the lessons after school. Though Bakura had kind of expected him to show up anyway. Expected, not hoped. It didn't matter to him what the boy did as long as he kept showing up after school.

It was true though that the boy made him think. Ryou wasn't like the other people he had gotten used of dealing with; the boy was just plain weird. Who in their right minds would be so willing to forgive and forget? And it didn't seem like he had any sort of hidden intentions either, there wasn't anything in it for him, except a new friend...

Funny, Bakura had thought that no one did anything without knowing that there would be something in it for themselves too. That didn't seem to be the case after all. Sure the boy had admitted to have some attraction towards him but it wasn't anything like that he wanted from him. As ridiculous the thought had seemed, still did, it was almost as if it was him who was attracted to the boy and not the other way around. Yes, it was true that the boy was beautiful, he would have had to be blind and stupid not to notice it, and Bakura was neither.

Speaking of being stupid, his final class that day was just exiting the room and the teacher felt like laughing, partly out of near despair and partly out of relief. Even though they still had a long way to go, they were improving, slowly but steadily. He felt like all his effort hadn't gone to waste and maybe he could one day be proud of all the idiots in his classes, somewhere in the distant future.

The work day was nearing its end but didn't mean his work was done yet. He would, after all, still have the lesson with Ryou, correct the tests his students had taken and that was not all. It was freeing, in a way, to just be able to drown in all the work. The world always seemed more insignificant then and all there was, was work. It was easier that way.

There was a slight feel of magic and Bakura lifted his eyes from his work to see a small note on the desk in front of him. He knew that it had to be from Ryou and unfolded it.

_Brain Damage is keeping me after school and I don't think I can come. Can you let me off? –Ryou,_

the note said and Bakura frowned in annoyance. "Damn that old fool..." He should have known that the old man would sooner or later seek to meddle in his affairs. He wondered if the headmaster knew about the lessons after school or was this about something else. He wrote his answer below the original message and turned the note to check if it could be easily sent back. Apparently the tiny transporting circle was made to work both ways and it wasn't a hard task to send the note back.

"Hmph, smart kid..." Of course if there still was a chance that the old fool didn't know about the little agreement, he would let the boy off, just this once. Though that didn't change the fact that now he had to go and find out what was this about.

And so, some time later that day, Bakura headed out of his classroom. His destination was a certain room in the student's dormitories. He knocked on the door once he reached it and the person who opened wasn't exactly the one he was seeking to meet.

"What do you want?" The fairy wings flapped as the boy looked at him warily.

"Is your friend here?" the teacher asked, trying to see past the boy into the room.

"Yeah... Ryou, _someone_ is here to see you."

Soon the boy emerged from the room to see who it was, or it could be that he already knew if the link was working the same way the other way around. "Hi, what brings you here?" he asked.

"What was the deal with that old man earlier?"

Ryou looked surprised for a second and his friend was clearly about to comment but was shooed back inside. "Oh that. He told me about this healing institution, because he knows I'm good at that, and offered to get me a summer job there, if I would want one." Then he paused and bit his lip. "He also wanted to talk about you... about the rumors and how you're bad influence or something..."

Bakura couldn't help but to roll his eyes at that. "Meddling fool... Did you tell him that it's none of his business?"

"Not... in those exact words... But I did say that he doesn't need to worry about it," Ryou told and the other nodded. Then the boy seemed to remember something. "Oh, wait a sec." He went back into the room only to come back a few seconds later, holding out a book for Bakura. "Here, you can have your book back," he said with a small smile.

"You read it already?" the teacher asked but took the book. It wasn't exactly a small book.

_...a fast reader... _

"Yeah, I'm a fast reader. It was really interesting."

Bakura blinked and stared for a second. He thought he had just heard... No, it was probably nothing... "Um... Well, I better just... go now..."

_...wrong...? _

Ryou frowned at the other's weird behavior. "Is something the matter? You look sort of-" he started.

"Yes! I'm fine..." With that Bakura left, walking kind of quickly, leaving the boy stare after him. Why now of all times was he starting to hear voices? He had never taken himself as a paranoid person, or not more paranoid than it was necessary.

Unless of course, he did in fact hear something and wasn't losing his mind, but that was stupid. If he had heard something, what could it possibly-

Bakura stopped, just halted where he was at the moment and stared in the empty space. Then he spun around and called out to Ryou before he had the chance to close the door, and stormed back to the boy.

"Let's go somewhere more private to have a little chat, shall we?" he said after grabbing Ryou's arm and starting to drag him away. If the boy hadn't been confused before, then he sure was now and as they walked to where-ever, the boy's friend's angry yells followed them.


	12. Social

**Social **

If Ryou wasn't confused about Bakura's behavior before, he sure was now as they stood in the empty room just down the hall. The other hadn't yet said anything, just seeming to measure the boy and contemplating how to go with something, whatever it was that was so important that it couldn't be said in Malik's presence.

As the teacher began to pace around in thought, Ryou decided that now was as good time as any to ask his question. "What's going on?"

The other stopped and spoke after a while. "I think that..." Then he paused and frowned, Ryou just waited for him to finish but it never came.

_...hear..._

The boy blinked. "What?" When the other just looked at him, he decided to make his question a bit clearer. "Did you just say something?"

"No. Did you hear something?" Bakura looked almost... worried?

"Well, I thought I did..." Ryou told hesitantly. Maybe he was finally losing it, wouldn't be a huge miracle seeing the people he hung out with.

"You might have had..." the teacher said quietly, as if he didn't want the boy to hear and Ryou had the aching feeling that he didn't. "Heard something, I mean, if 'hear' is the right word to use in this situation..."

"What do you mean?" Ryou asked, confused. "Bakura what's going on?"

The other looked at him almost apologetically before coming closer and took a hold of his head, one hand on each side. Ryou opened his mouth to question him but didn't get the chance. He gasped as the link fell open on both sides but this time it was different; it was as if the sound had been twitched on.

_... I think... can't be... do something... too draining... can hear..._

It was like that, just random words that didn't make much sense but they were there, along with the emotions and it was washing over him like a cool ocean wave, overwhelming him, filling him. _...mixing... _After some point, he couldn't even tell if they were his thoughts _...whose.?... _or the other's. If he had thought that the emotion thing had been too much, it felt like nothing compared to this. It didn't help much that he couldn't make out anything through the assault. It all mixed together into one big mass of words and feelings, though he had the feeling that the other was just as confused. Or was it even his own feeling?

They should stop before...

Then, it all came to a halt as his head was let go and he fell to the floor. Breathing heavily, he looked up and saw that the other wasn't in much better shape but at least he was standing. Ryou was glad that it had ended but at the same time, he felt sort of... empty... Like there was something missing.

"It's getting stronger?" he questioned even though the answer was quite obvious.

Bakura nodded. "So it seems."

"What should we do?"

"I don't know..." the other said with a sigh, running a hand absently through his hair, looking so bothered about his lack of knowledge that in any other situation it would have been funny.

"You don't know?" Ryou asked as a numb echo. "You don't know."

"Yes, that's what I said," Bakura snapped. "I. Don't. Know," he said slowly, as if talking to a dumb person. "You won't hear those words very often so savor it."

In any other situation Ryou might have but not now. "You are supposed to know! How else can we work this out if you don't know?!"

"Listen, _no one_ is, as you put it, 'supposed to know' all, or any, of this. This had never happened before so how the hell do you suppose that I know more than some else would?"

"Because! Well, because you're smart and a teacher!" Ryou attempted to get up but found out that maybe he shouldn't.

"Even teachers don't know everything," the other stated. "And I'm not the only one with brains in this room, _you_ think of something."

"Maybe..." Ryou started, moving to sit Indian style. "Maybe if we could just both block each other? Would that work?"

Bakura frowned in thought. "In the long run, no. It might help for some time but eventually we would just face the inner conflict problem again, and besides, I think that as the link gets stronger, it gets harder to block, it's draining magical energy."

"So basically what you're saying is that eventually it would get too hard to block and we would just have to keep it open?" the boy asked, not liking this prospect. "I still don't want you, anyone, in my mind."

"I don't like this either but that's what it would seem like. Unless we can think of something."

"Like what?"

Bakura shrugged. "I don't know. We will have to research."

"Ok, I can do that but what about until we can find something?" Ryou asked.

"Nothing, just sit back and enjoy the ride," the other said sarcastically.

xxxxxxx

The next few days went in the terms of school and research. They went straight to the library after school, though choosing to use different routes and come and leave in different times to avoid being too suspicious. Sometimes they sat down to read together but most of the time they preferred to do their search in the different parts of the library. It wasn't that they didn't get along if they had to, in fact quite the opposite though things were a bit awkward and bothered when it came to the link. Neither wanted to consider losing their privacy as an option.

"Ugh, this is draining my social life..." Ryou put away yet another book that only managed to waste his time; none of it was of any use for them. They had been sitting here for two hours already, he had homework, he was hungry, he had only seen a glimpse of his best friend just before they went to sleep during the last few days. This was not fun...

Bakura sent him an amused glance from the other side of the table that they were sitting in and that was located in the middle of the library. There were a huge pile of books on the table next to them, some were already looked through and some were still waiting to be read. It was good in the sense that it was nearly impossible to see them from behind all the books unless one stopped to look. But it was also depressing since the pile that still needed reading was bigger than the other pile.

"Would you prefer that we came here at night so that you could spend your days socializing then?" Bakura asked, reading something but raising his eyes to see the other's reaction.

"No. I rather have my sleep thank you." Ryou looked at the books, hoping that they would just go away if he stared at them enough. That, of course, didn't happen but hope was always free. He tiredly reached for the next book, just as thick as the last one, and opened it, noticing that the writing was extra small. "Nooo... These books are out to get me..." he whined and let his face fall on the offensive book. It smelled old...

"Hey, get back to work, we will never get out of here otherwise."

Ryou glared from behind his hair. "We don't have to do all this today, I'm tired, hungry and I have a huge pile of homework waiting to be done for tomorrow."

"Well, I'm tired and hungry too and I have to do something after this but at least I'm not whining about it. We searched through this many books yesterday and day before that too, this is no different."

"Yes it is; yesterday or day before that I didn't have so many days of going through books behind me. Let's just take a break so I can get something to eat, then we can continue," Ryou tried.

Bakura looked about to say no but then his stomach made its opinion known so he gave in. "Fine, but be quick about it."

The boy's face lit up and he was on his feet and out of the library almost before the other had the chance to finish his sentence. Food is a powerful motivator, after all.

xxxxxxx

Bakura too got something to eat and went back to work, Ryou had yet to come back but there was no rush. They had spent so much time together in the past few days that he needed his alone time once in a while. Not that Ryou was bad to have around, he could be worse off. He just wondered if they were friends now... Maybe all they were was two people thrown into a mess by some twist of faith, if you wanted to believe in things like faith or destiny. At least they came along relatively well. He didn't _like_ Ryou, but then again, he didn't like anybody, though he did like the boy more than anyone else and he guessed that was quite the feat.

Since the link seemed to be pretty sensitive now and only getting stronger, the feeling of something missing from the other end broke through his musings. It was like the awake consciousness had been twitched off. Had the other fallen asleep?

With a sigh, Bakura got up from his seat and set to find the foolish boy. He convinced himself that it was because he wanted to give the slacker a piece of his mind, and even if that wasn't the reason, he didn't bother to acknowledge any other reasons there might have been.

He had to go all the way back to the other's room to find him, and sure enough, there he was, dozed off on his bed, or half way to his bed anyway. The door had been left open and the boy's friend wasn't there so Bakura went in without a second thought. He took a hold of the boy's shoulder to shake him awake but once his hand touched the shoulder, such sense of calmness steeped through the link that it made him stop. Then, as his hand lay there, Ryou's head fell to the side so that it was leaning to the hand and the boy made a content sleeping noise. Bakura froze and just stood there for the longest while, the soft cheek on his hand and the hair gently tickling his arm. He wasn't sure what he should do but then he slowly moved his hand away, having second thoughts about waking the other.

Instead of yelling and shaking Ryou awake, he lifted the boy so that he was fully on the bed. Ryou looked so peaceful like that and felt peaceful as well, a few dream images steeping through. Most of them were calm and had the same people in them, a woman, that looked much like Ryou, and a younger girl that had held some resemblance as well. Bakura wondered if they were the mother and sister Ryou had mentioned but decided that maybe he should just leave if he wasn't going to wake the boy after all. Maybe he could do some research...

He took his leave before he would do something stupid like stay and watch the boy sleep, making sure to close the door on his way. There were still all those books in the library that needed reading. He could just pester the boy about his lack of research tomorrow.

xxxxxx

Ryou woke up later that evening, confused about where he was and why. Then he remembered that he had been doing research with Bakura, came to get some food and, apparently, fallen asleep. Had Bakura wondered where he had disappeared to? At least he hadn't come to wake him up... Ryou was grateful of that; he really did need a break. He wanted to find some kind of solution for their problem but too much was always too much. And he still had homework to do.

Ryou got up and went to find his book bag, which was on the floor as usual. The door opened and closed as Malik came in, he too looking tired.

"Hey, where have you been?" Ryou greeted just as he opened his first book.

"You know that guy from healing class? Well, I hung out with his friends. Where have _you _been?" Malik sat on his bed and waited for the answer.

"The same place I have been for the past few days after school, in the library." He scribbled something in his notebook as he spoke.

"Researching with Bakura? You too spend too much time together if you ask me. When are you going to have time for your best buddy?"

Ryou sighed and looked at said 'best buddy', feeling bad about not having time. "I'm sorry, I'm just really busy right now but I promise that we'll do something together as soon as possible, ok?"

"Ok. I will just have to entertain myself in some other way, you sort things out."

"Thank you." Ryou smiled. "I'll find time but... just not now... or any time very soon..." He trailed off and went back to his homework. Better to get them done before he just fell asleep again because he felt like that could happen any time now. He remembered the dream he had had. It was about his mother and sister again. He used to have a lot of those but not in a while. It had been a nice dream though the constant presence of Bakura in the back of his mind had also been there at one point. It seemed to happen more often now, that he could clearly feel the other's mind's presence, especially if they were in the same space as each other. Funny though, it had been so clear and yet they hadn't been anywhere near each other at the time... Ryou just shrugged it off. He had to concentrate on his work if he ever wanted to get to sleep.


	13. Slipping

**Slipping**

One can't go on for long with this huge amount of work every single day. Little on the third week of researching they were both more than a bit over worked and tired. The amount of books they had looked through was getting large but there was still a lot more to go as the solution was nowhere in sight yet. Bakura tried not to show that the work was getting to him but if one were to watch the teacher's actions carefully, and knew the way he usually acted, one would notice that he was getting sloppy. He made more mistakes and wasn't as collected as he usually was. The change was only small but it was obvious that it would get more noticeable in time. Ryou on the other hand was more openly tired; he slept in class, was increasingly careless with his homework and was late in the mornings more often. Malik was noticing the change and the teachers were starting to but no one was yet to do anything about it or bring it up. Ryou figured that they would in time so he was trying not to let it show too much though it was painfully obvious that he could just fall asleep while standing at any given second.

The only thing that kept Ryou going was the deal they had; it forced him to go to Bakura every day after school, whether he wanted to or not. He often found himself just walking to the library, his feet taking him there.

"Hey Ryou. Wake up, the class is almost over and the teacher is looking this way."

"Wha..?" the boy asked while snapping his head up; it had been falling on his chest as he was sitting on a pillow in the healing classroom. The teacher was looking at him with a worried frown and Malik was wearing a similar expression.

"Come on, let's get out of here; you need to get some sleep, we can skip the rest of the day," the half fairy said and got up, offering Ryou a helping hand.

"I'm fine," the other boy insisted and helped himself up instead of accepting the hand. "I can't afford to miss any classes, I have slept through too many already." That was true and he would eventually fall behind if he couldn't get it together.

"So what, it wouldn't be a big deal if you got a bit lower grades," Malik said with a careless shrug.

"Yes it would be." Ryou glared. "Like I said, I'm fine, you mind your own business."

The other sighed. "Ryou, you're not sleeping enough, you're not eating as much as you used to and you're getting very grumpy. Don't try to tell me that you're fine because you're not. Now listen to Malik and go to your room young man, get some sleep."

"I can't do that now, I promise that once this is over, I will sleep one week straight but right now I really need to be alert-"

Malik's laughter interrupted him. "Alert? You? A sleep walker is more alert than you are."

Ryou gave him a look. "Thank you, I needed the vote of confidence."

"Any time. Seriously though, you can't go on like this."

"Not planning to but it can't be helped right now." He didn't know how long he would be able to keep this up though... "See you after- Uh, I mean when I get back." Ryou had to go to his own next class now and had been about to say that 'see you after school' but then he remembered that they wouldn't be seeing each other until around nine. That time he would already be so tired that he wouldn't be seeing anything past his homework and after somewhat having them done, he would fall asleep. Not much time for his friend.

xxxxxxx

In all reality, Bakura wasn't in much better shape than Ryou was but he had more experience in over working and was more used to it so it didn't show too much, though that might have something to do with his stubborn nature too. Right now though, as he was in his room alone, he had came there to get some stuff after his last class had ended, he was quickly dozing off. Just as he was falling asleep, a knock on the door woke him up.

Ryou stood behind the door, looking like he had sleep walked there. "Hi... Why are you here? I thought you were in the library but my feet took me here..." the boy mumbled tiredly.

"I needed something. Come in for a sec and then we'll go." Bakura went back in to grab his stuff while the boy looked around in his room. Ryou went to the bookshelf and eyed the books curiously.

"You know, you shouldn't even have most of these," he said and glanced at the other.

"The ones I really shouldn't have are not on the shelf," Bakura told, gathering all the papers he was supposed to look through and his "magic marker" that detected mistakes but which he preferred not to use because there was a chance that it would be wrong but right now he just didn't care. "Don't touch them. Let's go."

Ryou followed him out of the door and down the hallway. "Do you have that kind of... ownership... thing on them?" he asked, struggling to remember what it was called and failing.

"Yes, 'inflicted ownership on a nonliving object', though some of them are cursed." Bakura couldn't have his "light reading" without protection after all, now no one could touch them without his permission, not without consequences.

"Oh. Who comes up with the names anyway?" Ryou muttered, obviously too tired to speak up or say all he wanted to. The teacher knew this because the unsaid things went through Ryou's mind and the things he got through the link were slowly starting to make sense, instead of being random meaningless words.

"See you in ten minutes." Bakura took his turn to go the longer route to the library in order to avoid being suspicious. "Don't fall asleep on your way," he felt the need to add. Ryou stopped and stared after him before he too went on his way.

Upon arriving to the library and going to where he had left off yesterday, he was ambushed by the boy in between the shelves. The magic marker was placed on the papers on a table and was already doing its work.

"No need to be a bastard about it, you know. It's not my fault you're over working us." Ryou seemed to be speaking more to the book he was holding than to Bakura.

"Blame it on your poor stamina." He didn't feel like arguing, he simply didn't have the energy for it so he just left the situation by grabbing the nearest book and going to sit on the table. A suspicious line was drawn by the magic marker on a paper and Bakura turned tiredly at Ryou. "Stop it, I don't feel like fighting with you." The boy didn't react much but the marker drew a very good picture of a middle finger. "Ryou," Bakura warned.

"Look," the boy turned to face him. "I'm constantly tired, I have no life anymore and I feel pissed off most of the time."

"So you're turning into mini-me," he snapped the connection between Ryou and the marker to prevent it from drawing on his face. "You're ruining the fruits of my student's hard labor, not to mention threatening my face. Stop now before I teach you the real meaning of pissed off." A faint feeling that this was some kind of attempt to gain some control over his life from Ryou's part went through Bakura's mind, that kind of thing that only a tired mind could come up with.

"You're supposed to be the teacher anyway," Ryou said before there was a snap in the air and he fell on the floor, looking stiff and surprised. "Wha..?"

"Cool down a bit and rethink whatever you want to prove. You can't make your point by challenging me in my own home field." That was true, at least now. With the half-assed training the boy had had in the field of magic, he couldn't offer much challenge for Bakura.

A spike up in the other's aura and a rather loud crack made him turn around, and if he hadn't, he would have been hit with a pretty imaginative curse. Now the curse hung in the air and the boy was dusting himself off. Bakura raised an impressed eyebrow but he still had a point to prove, and had figured that he couldn't harm a student too bad, so the falling down books couldn't be helped, the boy could take it. A few of the books were left hanging in the air by the protection field and soon the rest flew to random directions. The feel of the other's power played a cord somewhere inside of him and the strong pull towards it was there without a doubt. Though Ryou had handled it nicely in Bakura's opinion, the boy didn't look very happy.

"Are you crazy?! You could have-!" A well placed finger silenced him as the teacher knelt on one knee on the floor into the scattered pile of books.

"Don't make a scene," Bakura told while a smirk played on his face. "I think that with training, and once you learn to be a bit less obvious, you could really become someone I would have to watch out for. The way you handled my spell was seriously impressive, you just lack some practice."

Ryou stared. "A-are you _complimenting _me?" he asked, awe in his voice.

"Yes, I'm complimenting you. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well... You... I mean..."

Bakura rolled his eyes, got up and held out his hand to help Ryou up too. "Come on, get over it already." The other glanced between the hand and the one who was offering it, clearly suspecting that there was some catch but then took the hand and was pulled up.

"Thanks..." Ryou said quietly.

"Whatever, let's get back to work." Bakura turned to go back to the table but then a weird expression on the boy's face made him stop. Then he noticed that his fingers were stuck together with some strange goo. He looked back at Ryou who flashed him a grin.

"Someone forgot to de-spell a certain curse. I think I'm going on a break now, see you around." The boy walked away from the library. Bakura watched him go, even though the curse wasn't all that hard to figure out and it was gone in seconds.

"Nice one my dear," Bakura whispered at the boy's retreating back, smirking. "Very nice indeed..."

Ryou had earned his break.

xxxxxxxx

Ryou couldn't help but to feel proud of himself. Even though what he had done had been in no way rational and he had royally lost, he had still got one on Bakura. Not only that, he had received a compliment from the teacher. That, he was sure, was a once in a life time thing. Sure he had been told how good he was doing by other teachers before, but this was different; Bakura was probably the most difficult person to get to say something good about anybody. And yet he, Ryou, had managed to get a compliment from him, and he had got to curse the teacher. It was likely that it wouldn't cause much, if any, difficulty and Bakura would soon be hot on his tail but it was a small victory.

Maybe now he could get some rest and perhaps get his homework done before midnight. That would sure be nice... And true to his plan, Ryou got out his books and decided to get some of the work done and then get some sleep, unless, of course, Bakura would come and get him by then.

It wasn't long until he was fast asleep and dreaming how all the books magically disappeared, or read themselves to him without any effort on his part. That wonderful dream was interrupted by someone shaking him awake by his shoulder though and he was forced to come back to the harsh reality where there were still books in it.

"Now you made the books come back..." Ryou said, voice muffled by the pillow he had put on his head. He peeked from under his pillow to see Bakura look faintly amused by this.

"That's just how evil I am." He sat on the edge of the bed with a slight eye roll. Somewhere in his sleep induced mind, Ryou found that funny and had to muffle his laughing fit with his pillow. It was one of those laughs that only a seriously tired person can make and can't stop.

"It's not that funny."

Ryou somehow managed to stop laughing, the thought that the other might be here to get back at him helped. "Sorry, I'm tired, ok?"

"I noticed," Bakura told a bit dryly. "Now, while you were-" _...on your well deserved break... _"-slaking off, I-" There it was again; the sentences were getting longer and it wasn't new if they were whole sometimes. Ryou smiled a little at the fact that he had earned his break, no matter what the teacher might say out loud.

"Are you listening?" the other asked, annoyed.

"Um... not really..."

"Thought so, you would be smiling like that if you had," Bakura said with a small smirk of his own, looking kind of mischievous. Ryou had a bad feeling; the other had an idea. That had never been good so far.

"No," he said just so the other knew that he wouldn't go with whatever this new idea was; he didn't feel like getting into a deeper mess than he already was.

"You haven't even heard what I have to say yet, don't judge," Bakura told. "I-"

"Please don't tell me that you know what you're doing, or that you have an idea, those are never good."

"Actually I do have an idea but I'm not really sure if I know what I'm doing."

Ryou shrugged. "That's better than nothing, I guess." He would take the fifty percent chance of it getting him into trouble over the hundred percent chance anytime.

"Have you ever considered the chance that we might not find a solution to this? That we would just have to acccept it and live with it?"

In all honesty, he didn't want to think about that and kind of hoped that Bakura wouldn't be that pessimistic about it. "You don't have to-"

"I'm a pessimistic person, so yes, I have to," the other interrupted. Ryou thought that was a bit freakish but remained silent. "Even if there was nothing we could do about this, let's not start finishing each other's sentences..." Bakura said as a side note, not seeming to be all that ok about it either.

"Deal."

"We would have to get used to it then, especially since there has been some problems while letting the link be fully open, on your part at least," the teacher continued on the actual point. "We'll have to work on that, just so that we have a plan B."

Ryou stayed silent for a while, thinking. He didn't like this future prospect but they might just have to deal with it, even though neither wanted to. "Ok... More work for us then..." he said finally and the other nodded.

"Let's just take the rest of today off, we'll have all the time we need tomorrow. Here," Bakura pulled a large book into view. "I brought you a book about meditation, read it."

Ryou took the heavy book. "For tomorrow? I thought we had the rest of today off..."

Bakura smirked and got up. "You're a fast reader, it shouldn't cause any trouble, right?"

The boy opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. That just made the smirk on the other's face wider.

"I thought as much." With that he walked out of the room, Ryou's eyes following him. When the other was out, the boy sighed, frowning at the book he was stuck with. Well, it was for the better of... this, he guessed and peered inside the book covers.

xxxxxxx

"You're not even trying, are you?"

"Of course I am."

"Try harder."

"..."

"Give me your hands."

"Why?"

"Oh just do it, stop being so difficult."

"...You're cutting off my blood circulation."

"Shut up already and breathe like I told you to."

Despite his harsh words, Bakura did loosen his grip and Ryou in turn tried to synchronize his breathing with the other's. They were sitting near the front of the dark arts classroom, on the floor Indian style and facing each other. The whole breathing business proved to be a bit difficult but once Ryou stopped trying so much, he was able to do it. That was weird, all he just needed to do was to let go of all his trying and now everything was much easier. The link was open but not fully, since it always tended to cause difficulty if it was. It was rather nice, he felt full and as un-lonely as one could probably get. But that was understandable, seeing that he wasn't even alone in his own head anymore.

They were both practicing in case they would need to live with this but hoping that they wouldn't. It had the cool wave effect again though it was less overwhelming now that the link wasn't fully open.

Then, just as he was getting used to it, the feeling that a part of him had been just ripped out took over. The wave was gone and it was replaced by darkness that seemed to taunt his re-found loneliness. Something was missing and as he mentally reached out, it wasn't hard to figure out what it was.

"Bakura..." He wasn't sure if he had said it or just thought it but which ever it was that he had done, he received no answer.


	14. Distraction

**Distraction**

In all honesty when Bakura had suggested that they would work on the mind link, he had not counted on being barged in by an angry half fairy, and as if that hadn't been enough, his old "friend" decided to drop by not long after the annoying fairy. It seemed that the two fairy tale creatures, who would both kill him for calling them that if they ever found out, had something going on from the moment they first ran into each other.

"You're not a human..." Whispered the half fairy boy to the vampire and Bakura felt like going 'no duh!' but would never do anything like that so he didn't. Anything that went on with the two-

"Neither are you."

-failed to interest him as he had noticed that something was wrong with Ryou. The boy had seemed to be perfectly fine just a few seconds ago but now he looked to be disturbed by something.

In the background, the vampire, Mariku, continued his chat with the blond boy. "Thought it would be something like that." Bakura had no idea what they were talking about anymore but then he was addressed. "Where is your room?" Apparently he had told the vampire to go to his room and wait for him... He didn't have time to draw a frigging map! Ryou was getting worse and he could feel how the boy got more and more lost in his own loneliness.

"Malik knows, he can show you," the teacher told and the fairy got upset by the fact that he had to escort the vampire and tried to squirm his way out of it with some supposedly clever reply that was easy to turn against him.

"I know because you would want to know all the places your friend could possibly be so you went and located my room or something." There was no way the blond boy wouldn't know. Bakura cursed his link to Ryou as the boy was getting worse; he was starting to feel the effects of him leaving the boy alone in his mental world as well. A bad move on his part but he needed to get the fairy and the vampire out of there before he went about fixing anything. They needn't to know about what was going on after all.

Bakura had known the few hundred-year-old vampire about three years back when they had been on "a secret mission for the better of the magical society", that was a quote from Bakura's ex-mentor at least. In fact, the whole thing had been so big secret that even the ones involved hadn't known what it all had been about. But back to Mariku, he's, in Bakura's personal opinion, a terrible pain in everyone's backside, and in all reality, a born vampire with authority. Whatever he had for the fairy didn't interest Bakura in the least right now, though it was painfully obvious that something was there.

The blond boy needed to get glared because of something, Bakura wasn't even sure what, it was just an automatic reaction. This got a spiteful comment from the one on the other end of the glare, which somehow led to more... feeling...

"Hey!" Bakura yelled angrily, at this point sick and tired of all the touchy feely-ness. There was something seriously wrong here and the two extras needed to leave. "Get a room! Horny-vampire and fairy-boy, out!"

"Aw Kura you're so mean..." It was that annoying fake whiny voice the vampire used to get to him. Too bad it usually worked... "Besides, I'm not horny, I'm just hungry for this little fairy creature."

At this point, Bakura just wished Mariku would drop dead. "Mariku... That's practically the same thing. Now get the hell out already." By some miracle, he managed not to yell. Or curse, much, verbally or otherwise. The vampire took the hint, because even though he might be annoying, he was not stupid, and set to leave. Bakura was relieved that the blond boy, whose name was still a mystery to the teacher, left with him. A thought that maybe, just maybe, it could threat the wellbeing of the boy to leave with the vampire crossed his mind but it was quickly forgotten and pushed aside by the sheer intensity of the feeling he was getting from Ryou.

He was being swallowed by his own lurking loneliness, caused possibly by Bakura leaving him alone during the time they were supposed to be more together than usually.

The whole mental background that the teacher dived into now that there were no distractions was so dark that he had some serious trouble with finding Ryou, even with the link-provided knowledge of where he was. The boy's aura was so dim in the darkness but the mental light it shone was still visible if one knew where to look from. The part of Ryou's soul that had previously been sad gray was now blackened by current lonely feeling, instead of just the feeling from the past that had made it gray in the first place. Bakura reached out and pulled Ryou out of the darkness. The moment their unphysical hands met, the now dimmed light of Ryou's aura engulfed them both for that short while it took to pull them both out of the meditating state of mind.

Now that their minds were where they were supposed to be, they just sat there, on the floor of the dark arts classroom and took their time to acknowledge what had just happened. Both were relieved that they were no longer experiencing the crushing loneliness, now that the link was working and intact again. This also led to a realization but the current situation was too distracting for further thought on that realization.

At some point during them getting over the thing that had just happened, Ryou had attached himself on Bakura and was hugging him tightly, crying. The one that was being hugged and cried on was feeling confused and staring at the one doing the hugging and crying, not knowing what to do in this type of situation. He could handle a situation where someone was trying to kill him or harm him but he had no idea what to do when someone was hugging him and seeking comfort. The feelings he got from Ryou were in such a mess that there wasn't much he could make out of them so that didn't help any but worked more to confuse him further.

"Uh... Ryou?" Bakura tried carefully. "What- um... Is there something wrong?" He was pretty sure that was the right question since that's what he needed to know, and the question of 'What the hell is the matter with you?' seemed sort of harsh.

"You idiot! ...I was so alone... you left me..."

The answer was muffled by Bakura's shirt but he could still hear it. But hearing it didn't make him understand it or what he should do. "Oh ok... That wasn't intentional." Now Ryou looked up at him with tear stained face and eyes shining from shed and unshed tears.

"Did... Did something go wrong? What happened?" the boy asked while trying to wipe the tears away, looking sort of pissed at himself for breaking down. He looked so pretty like that... Weak yet strong, confusing. A mystery even though he shouldn't be, not to Bakura who had unintentionally gotten so close to him. The teacher shook his head to clear his thoughts, concentrating on Ryou's question.

"Some unwanted... _people_... distracted me. They needed to be gotten rid of," Bakura told and Ryou suddenly smiled a bit.

"Did Malik come here?" he asked while still wearing that small smile.

"Malik? Is he that blond fairy friend of yours?"

Ryou nodded. "_Half_ fairy," he corrected.

Bakura rolled his eyes at that. "Whatever," he muttered before speaking up. "Yes, he was here, along with someone I'm familiar with, unfortunately..." The end note got a giggle from Ryou but after that he looked kind of suspicious.

"I see... Where did they go?"

Then Bakura remembered that maybe they should be worried about this Malik who was alone with Mariku. Because he was Ryou's friend if something were to happen to him, it would be his own neck on the line... Not that he was afraid of Ryou or anything. "Maybe we should go check on them," he said and quickly got up from the floor and headed for the door. Ryou followed with a suspicious frown.

"Bakura, what's going on?" the boy asked, seeming to be worried now.

"Shut up and walk," was Bakura's explanation.

xxxxxxx

Ryou just had to wonder why Bakura was acting the way he was, that, however, was almost wiped out by the worry over his friend. Something must have happened to make Bakura act this way, something bad most likely. The thing that had happened during the meditation practice with the link had scared Ryou. He didn't want to feel that alone ever again, he had gone through that already, no need to repeat it. He did feel ashamed over his own behavior after that though... What had Bakura thought about him hanging onto him like some weak child? Ryou didn't want to appear weak in front of Bakura because he felt like if he did, it would be shamelessly used against him.

It was clear now that they were heading towards the teachers' dormitory and as Ryou looked around, he could swear that he saw someone in the shadows of the near by trees. He glanced at Bakura and noticed that he was also looking that way, giving the whoever was hiding there a curt nod before continuing on his way faster. Ryou ran to keep up with him while glancing back, trying to see the person in the shadows but failing and almost running straight into Bakura who had slowed down to open the door to the dormitory.

"Would it be possible for you to walk _and_ watch where you're going at the same time?" the teacher asked and went in, Ryou fast on his heels.

"Who was that person in the shadows?" Ryou asked, choosing to ignore the other's rude implication that he was stupid, knowing damn well that wasn't what the other thought of him.

"That someone I'm familiar with," Bakura told shortly and they climbed up some stairs, went through a hallway and stopped at Bakura's room's door. After a moment of hesitation, the teacher opened the door and stepped in before Ryou had the chance to.

"Oh shit! Damn that Mariku..."

At that point, Ryou did panic a bit, pushing past Bakura, looking around and spotting Malik on the bed. He went to his friend and started to cure him, quickly concluding what had happened from the fang marks. Ryou glared at Bakura, the teacher signaled him to ask about it later, and then noticed how Malik woke up.

"Are you alright?" Ryou asked, worried over his friend.

"Um yeah, I guess..." Malik seemed to realize something and quickly sat up. "Wait... Where is that bastard?! I'll fucking slay him!"

The exclamation took Ryou by surprise but Bakura seemed not to get phased by it. "You won't be able to do that, believe me, I've seen people try before the contract put an end to it. He's a few hundred years ahead of you in experience." To that Malik yelled something, but Ryou didn't hear what it was. How was it that one moment Bakura could be yelling and pissed off and then the next he was perfectly calm again? The boy studied the teacher's features, not seeing any of the shock or slightly worried hurry that had been there just a few seconds ago. He did notice, however, how handsome, strong and firm, just standing there so casually in his all black clothing, the other looked even in a situation where Ryou would have been in panic.

"You could've just not cured him yet, now he has the energy to yell."

Ryou realized that he was being addressed, wondered if Bakura had noticed him staring, fighting the blush that was threatening to form, but couldn't help the small smile. It seemed that Malik had noticed something at least, he had this expression and Ryou just knew.

"Thanks for curing me Ryou. I think I just go now and give you your privacy," Malik said and started to leave. Now Ryou couldn't fight the blush anymore and it came with full force. His friend was out the door and there was the click that indicated that he had closed the door. Ryou silently cursed Malik for leaving him like this after that comment. He glanced at Bakura, only to see him staring back with a raised eyebrow and with this almost playful glint in his red-ish brown eyes. Ryou's mouth felt suddenly so dry and it was like his brain had stopped functioning properly, but that didn't stop him from being aware of his, almost forgotten but never lost, attraction for the older teen. It suddenly felt so weird to think that Bakura, who was a teacher of the _advanced_ level warlocks and seemed to have more life experience than Ryou could even hope for, was only about two years older than he was. Certain admiration was in order... That was something _everyone_ hoped to achieve but only a rare few did. But the way Bakura had made it so far, through all the troubles and problems in his life forcing him to grow up so fast... Ryou's admiration was only dimmed down by the way he knew Bakura was; shameless, arrogant, uncaring towards everyone else and, lastly but not least, unpredictable.

Ryou turned his eyes away quickly. "I should go check on Malik..." he said quietly and turned to leave.

"Ryou."

The boy stopped just before he was out the door but didn't turn around, waiting for the other to continue.

He did after a short silence. "Do you think that I'm a bad person?"

The question took Ryou by surprise and made him turn around to face the other. "What do you mean?"

Bakura looked and sounded so serious it was almost scary. "Exactly what I said. Do you?"

Ryou had no idea what to answer to that. Yes, Bakura was ruthless and didn't seem to care who got wiped out if they were in his way but... Ryou was sort of hoping that wasn't all Bakura was... "You're just a victim of circumstance," he answered, truthfully, smiled a bit and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

xxxxxxx

Bakura had stared at his door. He had just stared at it for so long that it had already been dark once he had stopped standing there, deep in thought and wonder, staring at the closed door but not seeing it.

"_You're just a victim of circumstance." _

He wasn't entirely sure what had possessed him to ask the question in the first place. Maybe he had just wanted Ryou's opinion, but why? Why would he care what someone else thought of him? He had never cared before, why now? Why Ryou of all the people? Could it be that the boy had somehow cursed him or something like that?

After he had noticed that it was dark, he had decided to seek out Mariku. That bastard would have some explaining to do... It wasn't very wise to attack a student here, especially if one was seeking to keep a low profile, and besides, it had been Ryou's... best friend or something.

"I don't... I don't..." He didn't care if that fairy was Ryou's best friend. "I don't- oh fuck... I _do_ care!" Bakura yelled at no one particular, discovering that it was getting hard to not care about someone who apparently cared about him on some level and was just so... Bakura didn't even have a word to describe Ryou. Maybe he was naïve? Caring? What?!

"The apocalypse is coming, take cover."

Bakura whirled around and saw Mariku who had a slight smirk on. He was now annoyed. "Ha haa. Funny." Sarcasm... "What the hell is your problem?"

The vampire shrugged. "Nothing. _I_ don't have a problem," he told, sending Bakura a meaningful look.

"Well, you will have one if anyone finds out about the fairy boy," the human one of the two told, ignoring the implication.

"Well, _you_ will have one _when_ someone finds out about that Ryou kid and whatever you two have going on," Mariku pointed out, not letting his own implication go just yet. "What is going on by the way? Is he the one you care about now?"

Bakura glared. "That's none of your business."

Mariku didn't seem to be very impressed by the answer; instead he had this annoyingly knowing expression. "I just wanted to know who's causing the world to end by making _you _care," he said with a smirk, then turning to leave. "I was in the neighborhood so I decided to drop by but there's been a change of plans and I'll be staying in the neighborhood." That was his 'bye and see you soon' before he left. Bakura decided that he didn't even want to understand the vampire's motives. It didn't seem like anyone was going to get harmed so his job wasn't in danger. If Mariku wasn't going to do anything, Bakura couldn't be suspected to have a connection with him and even if he was, that wouldn't do much to his reputation in any way.

xxxxxxx

Ryou was pretty sure that his friend was an idiot at this point. But he was the good kind of idiot, not meaning any harm. Though he was annoying... That never stopped Ryou from loving him as a friend though. That was simple enough and he wished that everything would be as simple... But no, some people had to be difficult and dealing with anything that had something to do with them had to be equally as difficult...

Ryou wanted to put that aside for now as he was worried about Malik. The other boy wasn't there, in their room, and he had no idea where he was. It had been a few hours since Ryou had gotten into their room and-

"Hi Ryou! You're here? _Already?_" -and Malik was back.

"Oh shut up... Where were you?" Ryou asked.

"In the library," the other boy told absently. Ryou stared at him for a while before letting it go. Malik never went to the library because the books were 'out to get him', so to speak.

"Ok..." Ryou let that subject go since it seemed that Malik was ok, apart from the going to the library. It would be great if all his problems could be solved like that...


	15. Worlds

**Worlds**

"Um, Bakura?" Ryou asked one afternoon they were spending in the library again. There was something bothering him, other than that the other seemed to be more distant today, blocking Ryou off almost completely.

Bakura didn't even bother to look up from the stuff he was going through. "What?"

"It's about Malik..." Ryou started and the teacher sighed tiredly. They were both more than a bit tired now, Ryou had to admit.

"Look, I don't think that Mariku is really hurting your friend." Bakura directed his eyes on Ryou and he took notice of the dark rings that were starting to form around them. "I know what he's like but... This time it's just different, I'm almost sure fairy-boy will be just fine, and who knows? He might even find it enjoyable." Considering the situation and the state of mind, that was a pretty long answer. Probably the longest one Ryou had gotten all day...

"What do you mean?" Ryou questioned carefully, today not seeming to be a good day to get on Bakura's bad side.

"Why won't you just shut up and read?" was the answer Ryou got, a rather rude one at that. It made the boy frown and wonder what was the other's problem today.

"Are you ok? You seem even grumpier than usually..."

"No shit," Bakura spat.

Ryou pointed out: "You look even more tired than I am..." He reached to brush some of the other's hair out of his eyes but his hand was grabbed and slammed back against the table that was between them.

"Stop that!"

Ryou flinched at the impact his hand had on the table. "What? It's you who has problems... Why did you do that for anyway? I wasn't going to hurt you..."

For a short moment Bakura looked right about ready to explode but then he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I would almost prefer if you would..." he mumbled so silently that Ryou had great trouble catching it, but didn't have time to comment on it before the other seemed to talk to him again. "I have been staying up later than usually, doing research on something so yes, I'm tired. Happy now?"

"Well-" Ryou started.

"Good, now shut it."

That had been said with this kind of 'this conversation is now over' -tone and though Ryou was still puzzled by all that, he decided that it would be better for his health to drop it, for now at least. He went back to the book he had been reading, glancing at Bakura once in a while, only to get caught few times and glared at.

xxxxxxx

Bakura had come to the conclusion that he must be cursed. He didn't _care_, he didn't _enjoy company_. So since Ryou had just somehow slipped past his shell, almost, and making him care, there had to be something wrong here. He had stayed up for the past few nights, going through his books and trying to find a way he could be made to feel this way, without much luck though. Bakura was sure that his barriers couldn't possibly be that easily slipped through so Ryou had probably cursed him somehow. It didn't even matter that Ryou was a mage and technically it would be very difficult for him to cast a complicated curse alone; the boy talked to the dead and figured out darker magic's stuff like it was nothing. Ryou could be able to curse him, somehow.

He had figured that the boy couldn't be... like _that_! So kind and caring; Ryou had to have some kind of... plan to get back at him for making him go through so much. No one was like _that_.

And why wouldn't Ryou bare a grudge against him? After all this? The boy had to be some kind of fake... A skillful one at that to have deceived him for this long.

In Bakura's world there were no real people like Ryou. That just wasn't possible.

xxxxxxx

Ryou started to be more than a bit worried about his friend as time went on. Malik would space out on him, something only Ryou sometimes did in that friendship, and be unnaturally quiet. And, he didn't tease Ryou as much anymore. It worried Ryou.

Since Bakura's explanation on the matter had been... so bad and vague, and Ryou spent way too much time in the library already, thanks to all the researching, he had decided to go right ahead and ask the darker magic teacher about it again. Plus, he was worried about said teacher as well... Even though Bakura tended to be rude and easily pissed most of the time, he had never been like this... Like just today after school when they were supposed to meet in the library again, Bakura hadn't even showed up, no note or anything. Ryou had gone to see if he was in his classroom, no one there, then in the teachers' dormitory, not there either. It seemed to Ryou, even if he had no idea why, that he was being avoided.

Ryou couldn't be this worried about too many people; it would eventually cost him his good grades that had already went down a notch, thanks to Bakura. And since Malik was his best friend and deserved his worry, Ryou had decided to search out Bakura and ask what was wrong. He would be determinate about it too, he would probably have to... That and Bakura was still the only person he knew that could know about this Mariku character and his deal with Malik.

It seemed that Bakura's control over his side of the link was slipping because Ryou could now sometimes sense him; that's how he knew that the other had to be in his room so that's where he went. He knocked on the door and got no answer. Ryou frowned; he was sure the other was there!

Much to his surprise, the lock picking spell worked on the door and he carefully peeked in. Bakura was standing in front of the window, back facing Ryou and didn't seem to react when the boy stepped in but Ryou still knew that the other knew that he was there.

"Come in and close the door, my dear," told the teacher, not turning around. Ryou had a really bad feeling about this, and about being suddenly called 'my dear' again.

"Um... Is there something wrong?" he asked as he closed the door, keeping it unlocked and his hand on the knob, just in case.

"Actually..." Bakura drawled out while turning around so that Ryou could see his deep red eyes. The boy felt how his breath caught in his throat and he had this powerful urge to get the hell out of there. He would have, if only the door had still been there when he turned to run out of the room.

"...you tell me. Is there something _wrong_? Something I should... know about perhaps?" the other continued. "Oh and, how do you like my little spell? Brilliant isn't it?" He gestured around the room. Ryou looked around, noticing how there were no window or door anymore, just... wall... that seemed to be moving...

"It's um... nice?" Ryou tried, voice hesitant. "What... what is it for?" He had a hunch from how the magic felt, so pressuring and forceful, but he didn't want to believe it. But then again, who was he kidding? This was Bakura, after all.

"I must admit that it's not quite done yet, maybe some small changes." The other looked around with mock thoughtfulness before gazing back at Ryou again. "You seriously can't guess what it's for or are you just _faking_ it?"

The strange wall seemed to close in on them... "...But... Why?" was all Ryou could think of asking, confused. He didn't need to be interrogated about anything, to his knowledge, and this was a bit much... He couldn't even use his magic properly here and that scared him.

"Why? Why?!" Bakura yelled, eyes flashing and hair raising a bit more. He closed in with few steps since distance didn't seem to matter that much here and Ryou found that there was a none-too-firm wall right behind his back. "How dare you even ask _why_?! You should know better than I do!"

"I-I have no idea what-"

"You cursed me Ryou!" the other's exclamation interrupted. "Why! What did you do!" he almost roared on the boy's face and the room shook a bit.

"I didn't-" Ryou tried again, having no idea what was this about. What he could make out of the feelings through the link, was mostly anger... even hate, but also fear and confusion.

"I know you did, I know you did! You must have!" Even though Bakura did sound enraged, there was also a faint trace of desperation in his shouts, like he was more trying to convince himself. "How else could I feel-feel like this?!"

"Feel like... what..?"

"Like... like... You should know, fuck dammit!!"

Ryou shook his head. "I really d-don't know..." All the emotions he was getting from the other were in such a mess now that there was no way he could make anything out of it.

For a second, Ryou thought that Bakura was going to explode and just kill him for whatever it was that he had done now, but instead the other seemed to calm down visibly, placing his hands on each side of Ryou, preventing escape, and leaning so close that when he spoke, their lips were almost touching.

"What have you done to me?" was the whispered question and the eyes felt to look into the boy's very soul. Ryou still didn't know what exactly was going on but somehow the other had seemed to go from enraged to almost lustful in a matter of seconds... And Ryou had thought that the behavior Bakura had showed before had been confusing...

"I-I haven't..." It was getting increasingly difficult to speak and Ryou was feeling sort of... warm... "I haven't done anything..." The other was so close that if there would be just a millimeter less between them, they would be touching.

"What's wrong with me then?" Bakura asked. "I don't _care_, not about other people's opinions or about other people. I don't _need_ anyone else but me." He paused for a bit- "...but you." -then closed what seemed to be the longest short distance in the history of mankind, letting the mind link slip open as their lips connected.

It was different from that time when Bakura had kissed Ryou in the classroom; it was still demanding but it somehow had more emotion in it. Much more. Also this time it didn't stay just one sided when, after recovering from his first shock, Ryou let the other in because he felt to be willing to bite his way through if need be, though that wasn't the only reason.

A thought that maybe the other could be a bit gentler with the first kiss that seemed to mean something came to Ryou's mind as he tried to keep up but failing rather miserably as Bakura felt to want to eat him inside out and things were starting to move too fast for his liking.

"Ngh-Ba-" Ryou tried, pushing on the other's chest and taking hold of his more wandering hand. "No, wait..." he said, out of breath, once he had gotten the other to back off a touch. Now Bakura was looking at Ryou, eyes still tinted red, and the boy felt like he was on some kind of danger zone again. "Slow down. This isn't how we should... you know," he said carefully if not awkwardly.

Bakura stared at him. "And why is that?"

Ryou stared right back, surprised that the other even needed to ask. "What? We can't just- This is not the way I want to... well..."

"You're just being difficult. Again," Bakura stated.

"I'm being difficult?" Ryou asked, dumbfounded. "_I'm_ being difficult?!" he asked again, yelling now.

Bakura too was starting get annoyed by this. "Yes, that's what I said. You're just being difficult about this for the sake of being difficult. This is perfectly natural."

"No it's not! And for god's sake-!" Ryou pushed Bakura off and turned to dissolve the weird space they had been in, having no time or interest to wonder why it was so easy right now, too busy being angry at Bakura, who, in Ryou's opinion just didn't get it. "It's not normal to just-! I care about you too and yes, I find you highly attractive but I'm not going to jump into bed with you!" Ryou was also too angry to pay much attention on what he was saying.

"And why the hell not?"

"First, that's against everything I believe in and second, you're my teacher!" the boy yelled. "Have you no morals at all?!"

Bakura seemed to ponder on that and then shrug. "Not really," he told. "I still fail to see your problem. I thought you would just be happy if I did something to back up my words."

Ryou's expression softened at that and he stopped yelling. "If you wanted to do that you could have just... um... been gentler and less forceful about it..." he told softly, stepping closer to the other and hesitantly touching his cheek.

"I'm not a very gentle person," Bakura told but his eyes were visibly browner now and voice softer.

"I know. Could you try though?" Ryou asked and the other sighed like he was irritated by this but Ryou knew that he wasn't, that much anyway. The boy was relieved that he was no longer walking on such thin ice with Bakura as he was starting to look less like a devil from hell and more like an actual human being.

It turned out that he could also kiss like a non-violent person, he only needed to try much harder than most people. That felt more emotionally filling too... It almost ate away the feeling that there wasn't much to rely on in Bakura...

"That was so sweet I think my teeth are going to rot and just fall out..." Bakura commented and Ryou just rolled his eyes a bit.

"You still liked it and you know it," he teased a bit, making Bakura smirk.

"Hmm, maybe... But I still think that screwing you senseless would have been a better idea."

Ryou's face was adored by the mother of all reds. "Bakura!"

xxxxxxx

Bakura suspected that he would never be able to understand the boy, not fully or even anything near it. Even though they did share a link, they just came from totally different worlds. Hell, he didn't even understand himself sometimes, how was he supposed to get someone else?

It was just that somehow, Ryou had slipped through some hole he had in his defenses, one that he hadn't been even aware of. He was Bakura, he didn't have a hole in his defenses though so that was weird... Maybe the boy had created one without his knowledge... That would make sense on some level... And it was a proven fact that Ryou had magical power. That was something he found... likable in a person, if one wanted to word it like that.

Though it still remained Bakura felt... awkward about showing any kind of affection and would get bothered if Ryou did. Unless he could channel it into lust, then that would be perfectly ok with him. It was too bad that Ryou, in turn, would get bothered by that...

"That boy is a terrible nuisance..." he muttered, a faint hint of affection in his voice.


	16. Dancing

**Dancing **

"You know, you never really answered my question," Bakura brought up one afternoon when they were in the dark arts classroom, having brought some books there, neither feeling like staying in the stinking library. Well, it didn't stink, not literally anyway, but it might as well be stinking...

Ryou didn't even have to ask what the other was talking about; he just knew. "Yes, I did. Why are you so interested to know what I think of you anyway?" To be honest, he didn't think Bakura cared about his opinion and it would make no difference whether he thought that the other was a bad person or not.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Bakura asked with a shrug.

Ryou lifted his eyes from his book. "Why would you be?"

"I asked -."

"No you didn't, I asked first." Well, it was true...

Bakura glared but then he got this glint in his eye, letting them stay narrowed and smirking. "What if I really cared about your opinion? Held it in great value even?" he asked in a low voice, leaning closer; not by much but still enough to make Ryou feel uncomfortable.

"W-well..." Ryou stammered, but realized that he had to get himself together. "Of course that'd be... nice... but you won't anyway," he told quietly, still looking the other in the eye. Ryou knew that looking away would be deemed as a sign of weakness and Bakura would...

"You don't trust me all that much, do you?" Bakura asked with a silent snort, not backing away just yet though. "Why is that?"

The boy frowned. "You haven't... I mean you've only given me reasons why I _shouldn't_ trust you so far." He could make a mile long list, no problem... The other didn't agree with him; Ryou could tell even before Bakura opened his mouth to speak. It was a bit freaky in a way...

"I have, _but_ you also have reasons to trust me more than you do now," the teacher stated in all seriousness, if not a bit smugly, and Ryou gave him a suspicious look, asking him to explain. The other sighed but spoke again. "Remember just a few days ago, in my room, when I was about to ravage you but you told me to stop?"

"What does that-?"

"Shut up now," Bakura told almost gently, or as gently as one can tell someone to shut up, silencing Ryou's questioning but getting an annoyed look he waved off before continuing. "I stopped, didn't I?"

"Um well..." was all Ryou had to say right then; he hadn't thought it like that but now that he did, it sort of made sense... "But if you hadn't I could've-"

"Made me stop?" Bakura asked with a raised brow before laughing. "My dear Ryou, you can't _force_ me to do anything. You may have potential but I still overpower you with sheer experience alone." He stopped to grin. "What _I_ do is up to _me_."

Ryou narrowed his eyes, frowning in thought. The other looked way too smug for his liking. "...You wouldn't have stopped if I hadn't told you to," he told after gathering his thoughts. "And I had to be real determined about it too." Ryou crossed his arms as they both sat on the floor. "Not all power is magical, Bakura," he pointed out, holding a victorious air as the other's eye twitched, moments before Bakura seemed to regain his composure and smirk.

"I am aware of that, Ryou," the teacher said, inching closer, voice taking a seductive tone that somewhat alarmed Ryou who was about to back off but stopped himself. "There are... other ways... to make people act the way you want them to."

"Ah... y-yes there..." Ryou started stumbling when the other's eyes flicked downwards then giving this 'how about it' -look. The boy made himself to get it together though; if this was a game, he wasn't going down without a fight.

Ryou made his move and hugged Bakura who was now pretty near so it wasn't a hard task. "Even after all the stunts you pulled, I still can't help but care about you. You know that, right?" he told softly and even though he only told it now as his way to throw Bakura off his game, he still meant it.

"U-uh well..." Bakura stammered for a while before... "Hey! You little... you-!"

Ryou laughed a little at the other's loss of words, letting go enough to look him in the eye, smiling in small victory, and because he thought the other was almost adorable. "Oh 'kura." He smiled even wider. "I may not beat you in your own home field but I can always beat you in mine. See?" He leaned to kiss the other's nose, enjoying the taken back reaction that got, laughing a bit more but not in any sort of mockery. "I can always take you on," Ryou whispered with a smile and he could have sworn that the other was blushing, but then getting himself together far too fast.

"I'm sure you can." Bakura grinned. "But what if you're not in your field?"

Ryou's eyes widened but that was all he had the time to do before he was pushed back against the floor.

"Isn't this an interesting twist?" The other leaned over to whisper into Ryou's ear and the boy blushed, even though he knew he shouldn't; it gave away a weakness. "You look... _almost adorable_..."

"Um, thank you? Get off of me?" That was supposed to come out as an order, rather than a question, but the words refused to come out like Ryou wanted them to.

"Not so cocky now, are we?" Bakura asked, still grinning. "I would tell you not to challenge me if it wasn't so amusing."

"A-amusing?" Ryou repeated silently and frowning. "I'm not here for your amusement. Get off," he told, giving a push to get the other to crawl out of his personal space.

"What if I don't feel like it?"

"Then I won't be feeling like trusting you any time soon."

They both stared at each other for what felt like a good ten years or so before, much to Ryou's amazement, Bakura spoke.

"Let's trade," he said and the boy's mouth opened in question-

"Wha-?"

-that he never got to finish. The fact that his lips were already parted was taken advantage of and, after the first surprise, Ryou found that he didn't mind as much as he probably should. He felt his eyes close and the hands that were pushing the other off, were now just... there for the touch.

Bakura smirked as he was responded to; Ryou was hesitant at first but got bolder by the second and didn't have such a terrible hurry to get the other off anymore...

Though...

Ryou suddenly frowned as he realized something and didn't even have to struggle much to regain his mouth to speak. "That's not a fair trade," he said, out of breath and peeved at himself as well as Bakura.

Bakura chuckled. "Oh but it was. Fair all around." He started to remove himself as he spoke. "We both got, and didn't get, what we wanted."

xxxxxxx

As much as he enjoyed all the... joyful time he spent with Ryou, Bakura knew that they couldn't just play around; they had more important matters at hand. He had never been one to put social life before magic, and he wasn't about to start now. Bakura might be attached to Ryou, in more ways than one, but it didn't change the fact that the boy, and the mentioned "attachment", got in his way. He didn't like when things, or people, got in his way.

The thing was that he couldn't get rid of Ryou, didn't _want to_ get rid of Ryou. The annoyance he wanted to rid himself of was the cursed link he had created and which was now draining his power. The link in itself didn't weaken him, but the block he had for Ryou did. It took a toll on him to keep the other out of his head, a bigger toll than it should considering that Ryou wasn't even trying to get into his head... Most of the time.

As every single textbook about the types of magic and magic users says; warlocks use the power of the underworld, the realm of the dead and the forgotten. Bakura was no exception to this rule and he wouldn't want to be either; why would he want to give up such a great source of power? For moral reasons? Because of what other people thought?

He had no good reasons, none at all.

The dark power wasn't the best one to use on other people, unless you wanted to harm them, so to work it in a form that could be used on another person without causing serious harm, was difficult. It took concentration, skill and will power, especially if one wanted to keep it up for longer periods of time.

"How long are you going to keep that up?"

Bakura raised his eyes to look at the one who had sneaked into his company without him paying much attention. He gave Mariku a quick glare. "What do you mean?" Bakura asked even though he knew that the vampire somehow knew what was going on.

"You know what I mean, kid. I know that you know I know; I have my sources," Mariku told and sat down besides Bakura who was still wary about the other's presence and reasoning. The younger had come out to clear his head and had sat on a bench in front of the teachers' dormitory.

"Hmph, and just what are these supposed sources of yours?" Bakura sounded annoyed but he was curious to know, even if he suspected that the other couldn't know anyone he didn't know.

"Oh I don't know... Maybe I shouldn't tell you, young one," the vampire said, smirking.

Bakura's eye twitched as he hated to be called a kid or young one or kiddo or... "_Could_.... you.... tell me... anyway." Being rude when wanting information wasn't going to help but being polite wasn't his thing...

"I think it's your fault that it's so difficult for you," Mariku told. "You're just in denial and it's not all negative to have someone in your life, be a bit social once in awhile. That boy, Ryou was he?" A nod from Bakura. "He seems trustworthy enough."

Bakura had been listening carefully though he tried not to show it and looked away from Mariku, staring into the forest ahead.

"Oh come now, kiddo. I know you better than anyone and I give killer advise." He grinned and stood up. "I must be off."

"You don't know me better than anyone..." Bakura mumbled but he knew that Mariku must have heard because he stopped before disappearing. "That's just the past." Ryou knew him best, as much as he didn't like admitting it; the boy knew what strings to pull, it seemed...

"I know. Just remember that unity can be power," Mariku stated before taking his leave. Bakura glanced at the direction he had been in, but the other was gone.

xxxxxxx

It was around dinner time and Ryou had been trying to have a conversation with Malik over the food but the other had been so deep in thought that he had given up tried advising instead. That didn't work either and had only managed to drive his friend away... Even when he had shared his new information about demons; they liked to steal souls, it seemed. Ryou had discovered this new piece of info when they had been in healing class earlier that day.

A dead person had come to have a nice chat with him during the class. The dead and wandering soul had become food for an evil spirit, or demon; Ryou wasn't completely sure which and it hadn't been pretty, but it was that kind of disturbing thing he had almost gotten used to by now. The healing teacher had told him that it had been a demon though... He should ask Bakura; he probably knew these things.

The boy thought that he should enjoy his newly found, surprisingly good, hearing ability when it came to the dead, but the suspicion that it had something to do with the same thing that caused the mind link, took away his... joy....

Ryou tried to eat the rest of his food but just ended up playing with it. The food was good and he should enjoy eating it, but... He just stabbed his food a few times with his fork and rose from his seat. It was no use staying here when he couldn't eat but could swear that he was being stared at by his fellow students.

Where was Bakura? In his room, was the knowledge that came after the mental question. Ryou still hadn't gotten used to just knowing things, like the other's location, out of some kind of instinct. But then again, he should be used to weird things by now...

xxxxxxx

"Come in." Bakura pulled the door open and saw the surprised looking Ryou who had just raised his hand to knock. Bakura rolled his eyes and pulled the other in before closing the door. "There was someone coming down the hall."

"Oh. Are you alright?" Ryou asked with a frown and Bakura just grinned.

"Never been better. I know someone who gives killer advice." He had been doing some thinking and had come to a conclusion of sorts. The damned vampire might be annoying but he did have more knowledge than Bakura had, as much as he hated to admit it.

"Bakura..." The boy was suspicious and on his toes, staying near the door.

"Relax; I don't have an idea and I certainly don't know what I'm doing, there's nothing to worry about. "Bakura grinned. "But we're wasting time with all this dancing around."

Ryou gave him a wary look, trying to see what he was planning. "Dancing around?"

Suddenly there was a hasty knock on the door before it opened. "Ah, it was open..." The person mumbled, not looking up from her papers. "I'm sorry if I..." she looked up. "...disturbed you..?"

Bakura and Ryou stood there, both looking lost for a second and glanced at each other and then back at the healing teacher who blinked.

"...My, I just realized how much you two look alike. Are you related?"

"No, we're not. What was it that you wanted?" Bakura asked, giving Ryou a look that told that he would handle this to the best of his ability. The boy nodded just a bit, not noticed by anyone but Bakura.

"We had that meeting about the new schedules and you weren't there. I live across the hall, they told me to give you this." She handed him a few papers. "Headmaster said that he wants you present in these things so please bother to show up the next time." The healing teacher directed her eyes to Ryou and looked at the boy from above her glasses.

"Ah Ryou, a gift to the world of healing, I thought you only studied the subjects for mages?"

"Um... the demon in class," Ryou was quick to say and Bakura knew what he was talking about and that wasn't, of course, a complete lie as that was something Ryou had been meaning to ask.

"Ryou here wanted to know about the _supposed_ demon I heard he saw in your class." Bakura filled out for him.

"I see... Well, I'm off to bed, good night." She smiled and left, giving the two a final glance.

The two left in the room stood there, silent. Bakura gave a quick look at the papers he got before throwing them on his bed. This couldn't be-

"It's not very good, is it? I mean, she seemed-" Ryou started, Bakura nodded.

"Suspicious. It's not good. We've been careless."

"What should we-?"

"Not sure yet. Find out what they know and-"

"I don't want them harmed... Do you think-?" Ryou started to ask.

"Yes, if she knows, the headmaster must know too, or at least have a hunch," Bakura answered. They were both silent again, giving each other a weirded out look before snickering a bit.

"I thought we agreed not to start finishing each other's sentences," Ryou said with a smile, trying to scold but failing.

Bakura smirked and shrugged. "It felt surprisingly natural to me. Should we be worried?"

"A bit, at least," the boy told, still smiling though it was obvious that he was trying to be serious.

"Hmm, maybe." Bakura decided that now would be a good time to bring up the subject he wished to... discuss. "You know... You're wasting a great deal of my precious time," he told, voice lowering and stalking a bit closer.

Ryou looked alarmed, if not hurt. "W-what are you saying?"

It was funny how they were still able to misunderstand each other, even at this point and in their situation. "I didn't mean it like that, my dear. I meant that either you _are_ with me or you _are_ _not_ with me, there's no in between."

"What?! You want me to-to decide now? Here?" Ryou half yelled, looking shocked, and from what Bakura could gather, feeling shocked as well. "I can't do that!" He paced a few steps, running a nervous hand through his hair.

"Why not? Do you want us to be together or not? You must know that much." Bakura had decided not to get annoyed and try to have patience, since this was important for his sanity and for other things, but...

"I-I..." the boy stammered, unsure of himself. "I'm not sure..." He looked at the other pleadingly. "I mean... it would be against the school rules and we could both get kicked out, I can't have that. And..." Ryou looked down. "...and I'm not sure if you can be trusted..." he admitted.

"Tch... you and your morals." Bakura felt like throwing his hands up in frustration. "Trust... please..." Was there such a thing as 'trust'? Did it even exist? In Bakura's knowledge, it didn't. "And school rules? Who gives a damn?! There's nothing for you to learn here you couldn't learn somewhere else."

"Bakura... These things are important to me and I, as you put it, 'give a damn'," Ryou told, holding a firm look that told that he wasn't about to give in any time soon. As much as Bakura loved the fact that Ryou couldn't be easily pushed around, he also found it extremely annoying. "If you want a decision, you will have to give me time. I'm not saying no but it's not a yes either."

"There's only two options, Ryou," Bakura stated, then adopting a smirk and the glint in his eye that he knew got Ryou on his toes and the boy did frown, eying him. "But... perhaps I could make it easier for you..." He grinned, summoning up power.

Ryou's eyes widened and he seemed to be considering of getting out of there, but for some reason, stayed put. Not that Bakura would have let him leave.

"I will show you my world."


	17. Connection

**Connection **

It was a frigging multi-dimensional hole and, in Ryou's humble opinion, this bordered on stupidity. He glanced at Bakura who had an insane gleam in his eye, even though he was breathing hard and taking support from his knee. If Ryou had hoped that there was some sanity in Bakura, now all his hope was officially lost.

Bakura slowly stood straight up again and grabbed Ryou's arm without warning, pulling the boy closer to the crack with him. "You won't see it from over there."

"You can't be serious, do you know how much energy-?"

"Shut up and look," Bakura interrupted with a hasty hiss. Ryou too realized that he didn't have much time and did as told, eyes growing larger and emitting a shocked gasp before trying to back away, Bakura's grip stopping him from getting far.

"You're insane..." the boy muttered, gazing upon the surreal scenery he had seen once before, and had hoped never to see again.

The other just grinned. "And now you notice."

It was suffocating to have such closeness to the realm of the dead, where no living being was supposed to enter, couldn't enter. Yet, there right in front of him was a gateway. This all was almost too much to handle...

"Stop this."

Bakura lifted his finger and pointed at something beyond the hole, not paying attention to Ryou's distress. "The gate is open, see?" Ryou reluctantly followed the other's finger with his eyes. There indeed was a slight crack between the gates, small enough to miss if one didn't look carefully. "Do you know what that means?"

Ryou frowned in thought and confusion, glancing between Bakura and the gate. "Why... it's because a soul is coming in?"

"Exactly."

"But where is it? Isn't it supposed to..."

"Sometimes there's something wrong and it doesn't work; the soul can't pass the border, or someone doesn't want it to."

"Why?" Why would someone want to prevent that?

"It's a great power source." Bakura swayed some and lifted a hand to hold his head, "Death, whatever there's behind that gate, the crossing of the border... All of it, and moderately easy to access, considering... shit." he cursed, breathing getting heavier and Ryou had to keep him from falling, or he tried to but was pushed away. "Don't, there's no need..." Bakura told, regaining his balance.

"What about the soul? What happens to it?" Ryou asked, frowning in concern but also in a sort of distaste.

"It's often fetched back after awhile, but if it isn't..."

"I know what happens then..." Ryou began quietly, hand forming into a fist, "I've talked to them. Have you no idea what kind of effect-!" he cried out but was interrupted.

"And that, my dear, is only part of the reason people don't like warlocks. Sentimental fools-" Bakura coughed and collapsed onto the floor before Ryou had time to react. The hole closed with a crack as the dark magic user hit the floor.

"Bakura!" The boy knelt next to the other. Even though he was repelled by the ways warlocks got their power, he was still worried about Bakura. No matter what means he used to get his magical power, and in a way he had no choice for he was born to be what he was, Ryou cared about his wellbeing, how messed his other feelings for him might be.

Bakura rolled on his back and smirked up at him. "If this kills me, it's your fault," he said and Ryou didn't know how to react, except for he found himself smiling back for some odd reason.

"Why is that?"

The older teen reached for Ryou's face and stroked it with his fingers. "I did it for you, you idiot, to show you. Not many know the full truth of it... I think I'm going to pass out, feel free to take advantage of it," Bakura told with a tired grin.

Ryou shook his head. "You're the idiotic one; you're the one who shows visions of hell to show you care."

Bakura laughed and his eyes slid close. "You should know by now that flowers and gifts are under my level," he continued, looking more serious now, "Come closer; you should be ready when I pass out, my mind's going to open up for you... I was serious about the taking advantage part."

Ryou just stared for a good while, letting it sink in. "You-you mean..?"

"Yes, come here and get ready to invade my privacy with permission." Bakura reached his hand behind Ryou's neck to pull him closer.

Ryou lowered his head so that their foreheads were almost touching, bit his lip, and cautiously let their heads connect, just before Bakura's consciousness left him and his mind opened.

xxxxxxx

To tell the truth, he was scared, even terrified. This was the closest he had ever let any other person, mentally. He might be unconscious, asleep, but he felt at ease. No nightmares could attack him now when there was the presence of the other. If he had been awake, he would have laughed at himself, to his own inability to keep Ryou out of his life, out of his head. He was sure that his ex-mentor would have scolded him for this stupidity, but he wasn't here, now was he? It didn't matter, his mentor didn't matter; it was Ryou who made all the difference.

His teacher, and father figure in a way, had been strong in the field of magic but Bakura had never respected him. He would never admit that in some weak moments he was grateful of whatever type of friendship he and Mariku had. Ryou was strong, also in other ways than magical, and Bakura had to admit that he had come to care a great deal about the boy, and he would show it too, just not in any "normal" way; that wouldn't be like him at all.

Ryou was there, he knew. The boy had sneaked his way into his heart, and now he had access to his mind and soul too. Maybe it was only natural... Bakura had been in Ryou's mind several times after all, as well as in his soul. This would gain the boy's trust for sure.

He felt relaxed now; it didn't feel nearly as wrong as he had thought first. In fact, it felt rather nice. He could feel some of his memories open, but even the most horrifying ones didn't seem so bad now, not even the ones he used to have nightmares about. The times when he had almost lost his own life because of someone's spell, or because of his own. Or the times when he had been knocking at the death's door for some other reason. Even though it was part of his job description it never stopped stealing his sleep and rest in his weakest hours after a complicated spell or curse.

Perhaps his life would come back to hunt him later on... The negative thoughts got pushed aside by the warm presence, filling him and making everything ok for once in his life. He reached out for the source and could swear that he came to contact with something. Not something one could physically touch, but it was there, the feeling of another being, warm, soft and soothing. A good feeling, a fulfilling one. It made him feel whole, left craving for more, and he was sure to miss it when it went away.

No! It was slowly backing off as he felt himself waking up. Or perhaps he was chasing it out, he wasn't sure anymore, but that didn't matter. His physical feelings were coming back to him and he could feel something wet fall on his cheek as something warm and gentle was pressed against his lips.

xxxxxxx

Ryou thought he would have gotten used to this by now, but he had never been let so deep into the other's mind and the emotions still attacked him from every direction. The soul wasn't as dark as he had expected it to be but it had been darkened by time. He knew better than to be careless and his manner could almost be described as gentle, but that was what he had been taught to be when dealing with minds and souls especially.

He had figured that it was dangerous to be tempering with the dark forces, but it still surprised him how many times Bakura had nearly killed himself during his relatively short life. There were memories that were fogged or darkened, and ones that were more reluctant to open for him. He had trouble believing Bakura let him do this, but it was certainly a great feeling to be let in like this. There seemed to be countless of sleepless nights in the flashes of memory; it could be that Bakura wasn't a person who liked to sleep or something was always keeping him awake. Some things chilled him and would have made his eyes widen if only his physical eyes had been open.

He could feel Bakura come back to consciousness, reaching out and engulfing him with all the emotion. Much to Ryou's surprise they were calming, not as aggressive as the ones he had felt before, when he had first invaded this space unknowingly. It was a firm grasp, one he could lose himself into, and would have if he wasn't being slowly pushed away.

_No!_

Or was he pulling away, he wasn't sure. All the emotion took its toll and Ryou shed a lone tear, peering from behind his eye lids, noticing how the other had, also physically, reached for him and grabbed a fistful of his shirt. Bakura let out a small sound, almost like a whimper. Ryou smiled a bit, another tear falling and hitting Bakura's cheek before he lowered his face more and kissed the other gently, hesitating first but then gaining courage.

He was close to pulling away when he felt the other's lips twist into a slow grin, but there was a hand behind his head that kept him there, as well as a feeling of success that wasn't his own; it was almost gleeful. It made him feel like he had been tricked somehow. Though... that would be like one particular bastard he knew better than he would care to. Ryou smiled and instead of pulling free, kissed harder. Ryou opened his mouth to the other's prying tongue and felt a hand sneak behind his back where he needed his both arms to support him above Bakura.

Bakura would have none of it though and flipped them over, making Ryou let out a squeal and blush at his childish noise that made Bakura chuckle softly against his mouth before moving to his neck.

"Don't laugh at me. Oh..." Ryou scolded.

_...noise was_ _just too cute... _

Ryou almost got a heart attack right there; that was the most complete sentence he had ever gotten through the link. Bakura must have felt him jerk because he stopped his ministrations for a second to take a look at him. Ryou stared right back, eyes wide.

"You caught all of that?" Bakura asked and the boy nodded silently.

"Almost, at least... Bakura..." He wasn't quite sure how to continue and kept silent. He could almost see the wheels in Bakura's head turning as he thought it through, a slight frown forming on his face.

"Well... We knew from the beginning that it would come to this eventually. Can you hear my thoughts now?"

Ryou shook his head. "No..."

"Hmm... Alright, there seems to be a way to control that then. Meet me tomorrow... some time in the afternoon and we'll figure this out... somehow..." Bakura didn't seem all that sure about himself for some reason and that made Ryou feel unsure all well. Bakura got up and Ryou sat up too, reaching out to lay his hand on Bakura's arm. Their eyes met and Ryou offered a smile, it was a small one, unsure, but it got returned.

"I'm sure it'll all be alright." Ryou kissed the other's lips quickly before crawling up. "I should get going, it's getting late and I'm tired." He yawned and turned to go to the door. "Good night, see you tomorrow."

"Night... Ryou?" The boy turned around curiously. "Are you sure you don't want to stay over?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ryou told while blushing, turning the door knob and stepping out. Why did Bakura have to suggest something like that? It would get them in trouble for sure and now his mind was polluted. Ryou sighed and continued his way out of the teachers' dorm and to the students', wondering what it would have been like to stay...

xxxxxxx

Friday at school went by without much of a fuss. Nothing interesting happened and as Ryou walked out of the last class of the day, history of magic, he was already looking forward to going to town with Malik. He would finally be able to spend some time with his friend.

He met up with Malik in the lobby where they went to get rid of their back bags and books before heading out. The sun was starting to set as it was late autumn and the day light hours were getting shorter and shorter. The creatures of the night liked the time of the year and Ryou too was fond of it. He was waiting for the winter to come with all the pretty snow and the winter holidays, like Christmas.

They decided to look around for a while to think what they were going to do. They would probably go get something to eat and...

"Are you hungry yet?" asked Malik suddenly as they passed by yet another fast food place. Ryou shook his head, surprising even himself; he would normally be hungry by now.

Malik looked at him weirdly. "You ok?"

"I'm fine, I'm just not hungry yet."

"Does it by chance have something to do with Bakura?"

"No..." Or at least Ryou didn't think so... "Things are going better now, I guess." He shrugged and his friend raised an eyebrow.

"How much 'better'?" Malik wiggled his brows and Ryou swapped him on the arm, blushing some but hoping that the other wouldn't notice.

"Perv... I trust him more now and care about him... but I don't think he even realizes how much..."

"Yeah, but it's only because he's an oblivious bastard."

"He's not that bad..." Ryou told quietly and Malik seemed to spot someone as he waved and smiled. Ryou was surprised to see a hint of shyness on that smile, Malik was never shy. The boy saw who was approaching them now and it all made sense. Apparently Malik was deeper than he had originally thought... Ryou decided to give them some privacy and pretended to be interested in something on a shop window. Oh, what pretty colors...

Ryou tried to shut the other two out the best of his ability, knowing that it was probably none of his business what they were discussing about. They would both have to accept that there were aspects in their life now they couldn't always share. He had noticed small changes in his friend over time. Malik had gotten a tad bit more serious and could stand being alone better. Ryou was glad to notice that Malik was happier nowadays, though he did suffer from more blood loss than before.

The colorful things behind the window were becoming increasingly boring to look at and Ryou could feel people's eyes on them, on the pair behind him especially. "Excuse me, could you not do this here?" Ryou asked, glancing nervously around at the people surrounding them. "There's only so long one can pretend to be interested in... 'hand made woolen napkins'?" The hell..? Who would want to buy something like that?

The other two agreed and Mariku offered to take Malik somewhere. So much for the Friday spent together...

Before they left, Mariku turned to Ryou, still holding the half fairy. "I'm sorry to steal your friend from you."

Ryou smiled, deciding that his friend was in good hands. "That's alright, just take good care of him."

The vampire nodded, "I will," and they were off.

Ryou was left there wondering what to do now. Should he go back to the dormitory or stay there and wander around alone? The answer came in a form of a familiar presence in the back of his mind. He barely had the time to react a voice spoke form behind him, making him jump a bit.

"What are you doing here all alone?"

Ryou spun around to face Bakura who had his eyebrow raised in curious manner and a small smirk playing on his lips, no doubt because he had managed to sneak up on the other. Ryou huffed and crossed his arms.

"I came here with Malik but he got distracted. What are _you_ doing here?"

"I came to look for you, of course," Bakura told like it should have been obvious. Ryou blinked and remembered that they were supposed to meet up sometime during that day.

"Oh... Should we head back to school?"

A disgusted look crossed Bakura's face and he wrinkled his nose, a gesture Ryou found incredibly cute. "No. The god damn old fool is breathing on my neck again. Something about this years finals and how the dark arts is too difficult this year and how his stupid subject should be first and how all the funds are misdirected and the students' families are unhappy with me again and crap like that. Like I give a damn."

"Well... Maybe you should listen to him, he's been here longer than you have," Ryou suggested.

"Like hell! If the headmaster comes to complain about those things then I _might_ listen to him, just because he's the one who hired me. Are you hungry? All this ranting has made me starve."

"Actually I-"

"Good. Come along now."

Ryou sighed and let himself be dragged off.

xxxxxxx

Ah, a bloody steak, just the thing he needed to take away his aggression. Bakura glanced at his companion who was looking at him with a somewhat disgusted expression. Ryou had barely touched his own food and was staring at Bakura instead.

"What?" Bakura asked, mouth full of steak.

"...nothing..." Ryou told numbly, turning his eyes on his food, stabbing it with his fork but not eating any.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"...Not anymore." Ryou smiled a bit, it was a weak one and obviously false. "Weren't we supposed to talk about-"

"You think my eating habits are disgusting," Bakura stated before Ryou had time to finish his question. That had to be it.

"Well..." The boy seemed bothered. "...yes. I can't eat in your presence."

Bakura rolled his eyes and pushed his plate farther away from him, leaned back and folded his arms. "Fine. We're going to- No wait, correction; _I'm_ going to search out a couple with a mind link and we're going to ask them about the finer details. Really, we should have done this a lot sooner but I don't like to ask for help."

"Ok... Where are you going to find one?"

"I still have connections, it shouldn't be a problem."

Ryou put a forkful of food in his mouth and chewed, nodding. "Alright, I'll leave it to you then," Ryou said after swallowing and looked up from his food. "Does this mean that I don't have to come after school?"

Bakura shrugged. "Not for a while. Why? Don't want to be in my company anymore?"

"It's not that, I just really need some more time for my school work so I don't have to do my homework at night." Ryou ate some more and took a sip of his drink.

"Hm, speaking of nights, did you sleep well last night?" Bakura asked and couldn't help the smirk that formed when Ryou almost choked on his drink, having a mad coughing fit. He looked like he would choke but managed to cease his coughs enough to answer, face red either from the lack of air or for something else entirely.

"Yes, very."


	18. Sleep

**Sleep **

It was late at night but Ryou was wide awake, reading on his bed, laying on his stomach and waving his legs in the air. He had brought the book earlier from the library and it dealt with the mind and soul's self healing powers and such things he found interesting at the moment. After reading for a good while, he was starting to feel the growing need to get out and breathe some fresh air. He decided to head for the roof as he was pretty sure that no one would be there. He could hear distant sounds coming outside where some teens were still up and having fun with their friends. He wondered where Malik was now and guessed he was with Mariku again. Not that he could blame him; there was definitely something growing between them and he himself had spent an awful lot of time with Bakura. How was the search going, he vaguely pondered as he made his way to the stairs that led up to the roof and into the cool night air.

On the door, he stopped, hearing weird noises from the other side. Ryou pressed his ear against the door and strained his hearing to hear what was going on. He wouldn't want to walk in on anyone.

Ryou concentrated and then immediately wished he had just stayed in his room. The noises were getting louder and he could distantly recognize at least one of them.

"Oohh, Mariku!"

Ryou went red, then white, and red again. That was Malik and he definitely wasn't in pain. Dear lord... Ryou pulled away from the door and ran down the stairs. It was obviously a bad time to be barging in the roof.

His mind led him to think a different matter that was sort of related but not quite. What it would be like if Bakura and he..? His redness came back full force. Oh why was he thinking that? Sure he was a teenage boy and god knows Bakura had insinuated it... He didn't even love him! Or did he? Well, he was attracted to him at least, he couldn't deny that, but love? That couldn't be... Ryou refused to think about that now and tried to keep his mind blank or to think something else. Hmm, it was Sunday, he had done his homework and tomorrow was a school day... What had Malik been thinking! He needed to be up early tomorrow! Ugh, there he went again...

Ryou made his way back to his room, deciding to sleep if he could. He locked the door and changed into his pajamas, slipping under the covers and turning off the light. Soon he was drifting off...

_Mad eyes gazed to his and as he lifted his fingers to find out what was the wetness on his cheek, his fingers came back covered in blood. A scream in the distance and his own eyes grew wide. He should have listened to his mentor. What happened to his blood sacrifice? The little mouse hadn't been enough and now his clothes were starting to soak in red. Gods... Someone called his name in a mixture of anger and panic. Pain pierced his skull and all went black._

A scream woke Ryou up and he realized it was his own. He shot up and so did Malik on the other bed.

"What's the matter?" Malik asked, eyes not quite open.

"Nothing, go back to sleep."

"Oh okay..." and was asleep again. He must have been tired...

That hadn't been his own dream, he wasn't sure how he knew but he just did. He was reminded about all the things he had seen in Bakura's memories and some seemed similar to the dream. They hadn't talked about all that and now it was starting to bother him. When he closed his eyes, he could see the images of the nightmare like they were printed on the back of his eye lids.

Ryou knew that if he fell asleep, Bakura's dreams would start to hunt him again. He couldn't sleep with images of hell and blood and death and-

He got up from his bed, checking that he hadn't woken up Malik again, and made his way down the stairs to the lobby where the transporting circle was. He had used it once before and chances were that it would work again. He concentrated hard on where he wanted to go and felt a weird falling sensation before landing on his rear with a painful thud, seeing Bakura shoot up from his bed with the corner of his eye.

Wary and sleepy eyes landed on Ryou who got up, rubbing his sore end.

"What are you doing here at this hour, Ryou?" Bakura asked, surprise and a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"You had a bad dream..." Ryou explained quietly. "I couldn't sleep."

"Oh, sorry..."

"Why are you apologizing? It wasn't your fault, really."

"I guess... Did you just come here to wake me up?" Bakura rubbed his eye a bit. It was a surprisingly childish gesture and almost made Ryou smile fondly.

"Actually, there's something else I wanted to talk about..."

"The stuff in my head."

"Yeah..." Ryou sat on the edge of the bed, fiddling with the hem of his pajama top. "All that... it explains a lot..." Now that he was here, he didn't know what he wanted to say anymore. "I mean... I'm really glad you showed me." He lifted has head to give Bakura a smile.

"Then why did you cry?"

"Oh, that... I cried for all the things you've been through and I guess I was happy that shared it with me..." Ryou trailed off, looking away again.

"I hate it when you cry because of me."

"Bakura... I didn't cry because of you, I cried for you." He smiled a little again, reaching to touch the other's shoulder and arm gently. "Want to tell me what was that dream about?"

Bakura snorted. "My first demon summon, I went a bit overboard. That thing was far more powerful than anything I could handle at that point, my mentor had to save me from dying. I messed up with the magic circle and the blood sacrifice." He drew a circle in the air absently. "Something was missing... I can't remember what it was anymore."

"How old were you?"

"Twelve. It's illegal to summon demons under eighteen but I was curios and thought I could pull it off. It took me two years to master it though... My mentor was pissed." Bakura grinned. "He threatened to stop teaching me but I knew he wouldn't, I was just too good."

"And not conceited at all."

"Merely honest."

Ryou laughed and got up, feeling tired now and wanting to go back to his room and try to get some more sleep. "Well, I'm going to head back now. Good night."

"Why don't you sleep here?"

Ryou stopped and turned to face Bakura, raising a suspicious eyebrow and folding his arms. "Sleep? Here with you? Just sleep?"

"Of course." Bakura smirked. "What did you think I meant, hmm?" He chuckled. "Your mind is dirtier than mine."

The boy blushed. "I was just making sure."

Bakura took his hand and pulled him towards the bed. "Come on. I promise I won't try anything funny."

Ryou hesitated but let himself be pulled. "...Alright, but I have to get out of here before anyone else wakes up."

"I'll wake you up." Bakura lifted up the covers so that Ryou could get under them. He tried to get comfortable, back against Bakura's chest. He placed his head on a pillow and took a deep breath. It wasn't as hard to relax as he had thought and he managed without trying. He smiled a bit to himself and felt sleep creeping over, closing his eyes.

"I'm going to put my arm around you now, don't freak," Bakura warned and pulled the other closer, burring his nose into Ryou's hair and kissed his neck. "Good night."

"'Night..." Ryou sighed contently and let sleep over come him, feeling warm and protected.

xxxxxxx

Bakura woke up slowly to the feeling that warm and soft snuggled closer to him. He felt so well rested that his first reaction wasn't cursing the one in his bed with him. An arm and leg wrapped around himin a possessive manner and breath tickled his neck and collar bone. He opened his eyes lazily and saw a fluff of white. Bakura backed his head away so he could see better and came face to face with the one holding him so tight. Some of Ryou's hair had fallen to his face and Bakura brushed it away and behind his ear, making Ryou wrinkle his nose at the ticklish sensation.

Bakura glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was six in the morning already. Ryou would have to leave soon before anyone woke up. "Ryou, time to wake up..." he tried and the other stirred but didn't wake up. "Ryou..." Bakura grinned and licked Ryou's ear, blowing on it and making the boy swat him.

"Five more minutes..." Ryou whined.

"No, up now or I will..." he stopped to think for a good threat. "...molest you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Oh yeah? Watch me." His hand moved down and squeezed Ryou's ass, making the boy yelp, jump, open his eyes and fall off the bed, all in one not so smooth motion. "Warned you."

"Bakura, you-you-!"

"Yeess?" Bakura peeked from the side of his bed and saw the fallen boy, one leg tangled with the sheets, hair a mess and glaring at him. He laughed openly and wished he had a camera.

"This is not funny."

"It is from where I'm looking."

Ryou untangled himself, got up and brushed the imaginary dust off of him. "Fine, no good morning kiss for you."

"You're cruel."

"You're a bastard. I'm leaving now, bye." Ryou calmly turned around to walk out of the door.

"Oh come on... Come back here and kiss me."

Ryou turned back to face the other. "Apologize like you mean it first."

"I am so very sorry for laughing at you. How's that?" Bakura asked, hopeful. Oh he wanted a kiss, he wanted so much more too, but that could wait for another time.

"Good enough." Ryou came over and pecked Bakura's lips. "There, morning. I'm going now."

"That was it? I want a decent one!"

"Too bad." Ryou closed the door behind him, leaving Bakura to gap at him. Damn...

xxxxxxx

Ryou was feeling somewhat proud of himself when he reached his door. Hah, that will teach him to laugh at Ryou! He opened the door as silently as he could and slipped in, closing the door behind him.

"And where have you been all night?"

Ryou jumped and swirled around only to see Malik sitting up on his bed, looking at him with a small smirk. Ryou calmed his startled self before fixing his friend with a glare.

"You scared me. And if you must know, I was with Bakura, as you might have guessed already." He went to his closet to find some fresh clothing, threw a clean pair of pants and a shirt on his bed and made sure he had everything ready for school. "What? No comments? Remarks? General pervertedness?" He glanced at his friend.

"Nope."

Ryou stopped what he was doing and turned to face Malik. "Okay, who are you and what have you done to Malik?"

The other just laughed. What was it with people laughing at him this morning? "I knew you'd be expecting me to say something like 'Did you have fun?' so I thought I'd surprise you," Malik explained, seeming quite amused. "By the way, did you?"

"We didn't do anything."

The other raised a brow. "Nothing?"

"Well, we cuddled, but that was it." Ryou finished packing his bag. "What are you doing up so early, anyway?" He was tempted to add something teasing about last night but he couldn't let his friend know that he knew and think that he had spied on them.

"Couldn't sleep. Why did you sneak out to see Bakura in the middle of the night?"

"I... needed to talk to him about something..."

"And it couldn't wait till morning?"

"No. What's with all the questions? I never interrogate you about what you do with Mariku." Ryou crossed his arms; it was way too early for this.

"Mariku never did anything to me."

"It's different now," Ryou stated. "He wouldn't..."

"How do you know that?" Malik argued further. "He could, you don't know. How well do you know him anyway?"

"Better than you do. We're connected; I know what's going on with him!" Ryou was starting to raise his voice so he closed his eyes and breathed deeply a few times before speaking again. "I trust him, Malik."

"Well, good for you," his friend replied, turning away to change and grab his things. "Mariku talks about him you know, he knows Bakura and I don't think you should-"

"Mariku hasn't been in his head, Mariku doesn't share a goddamn mind link with him! I think I know better, really, so let it drop already."

"Fine." Malik walked out the door, slamming it behind him. Ryou didn't feel so good anymore. Malik and he hardly ever argued or fought about anything so this was rare. It always lasted long when they did though because it was normally about something serious. Ryou felt bad about yelling at his friend who was only worried about him but knew from experience that it was no use talking to Malik yet, after so little time had passed; he would still be too pissed to listen, let alone forgive and move on. He would apologize once the other had cooled down.

xxxxxxx

After the school day had ended, they went back to their room, not saying a word to each other. They had avoided each other for the whole day, which had been easy since they only shared one class where they had paired up with different people when they were told to work in pairs. The teacher had looked at them strangely; they were always together. She didn't comment on it though and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Because they lived in the same room, they had to take the same route to it, but that didn't stop them from keeping distance. Malik was clearly still quite angry so Ryou didn't bother with him, and just started doing his homework after they had reached their room, he could go to dinner later. Malik muttered something about going to the cafeteria already and left. Ryou sighed, opening his magic history book and began reading the chapter.

A wind blew in the room, blowing his hair and notebook pages around and Ryou glanced up to see if the window was open but saw Mariku standing in the middle of the room instead.

"Malik's not here," Ryou informed.

"Do you know where he went?"

"He said something about the cafeteria... I didn't really pay attention." He smiled weakly. "I'm sure you'll find him though, he's kind of hard to miss."

Mariku nodded. "I also have something for you."

"Me? What-?" Ryou was presented with a thin booklet. The cover was dark blue with yellow writing and looked harmless enough so he reached out to take it but the vampire pulled it out of his reach.

"You may borrow it but you will have to promise to make up with Malik."

"How did you know?"

"I have my ways... Deal?"

Ryou suspected that the vampire had been spying on them but said nothing about it. "Deal. I will talk to him once he calms down."

"Alright." Mariku handed Ryou the booklet.

"Thank you." Ryou smiled at the vampire and the corner of his mouth also curled up a bit.

"Don't mention it. I need it back as soon as possible though, it's not really mine, you see."

"Of course, I'll have Malik bring it to you."

"Good." With that the vampire was gone. Ryou glanced at the book and decided he would tell Bakura tomorrow before the morning classes began, right now he needed to finish his homework.

xxxxxx

"Where exactly did you get this book? Not from the library," Bakura asked, waving around and leafing through the booklet titled 'Soul Mates IV: Connections and problems that will occur' by Linkvery Positive.

"I got it from Mariku," Ryou told.

"Mariku?" Bakura repeated. "Why would he give you this?"

"Lent me it," Ryou corrected. "I guess a friend of Malik's is a friend of his, or something."

"And _I'm_ not his friend now?"

"Oh drop it. I bet this can be useful. I haven't read it yet," Ryou said in hopes of changing the subject.

"But why did he give it to you?" Bakura crossed his arms stubbornly, refusing to let it drop.

"I don't know why! Why is it so important anyway?! He gave- _lent_ me a book, not kissed me or anything!"

"Good, because I would have to kill him for that."

Ryou sighed. "Bakura... Let it go, please."

"Fine, I'll just bring it up with Mariku."

"I'll have to warn him then..." Ryou muttered.

"What? Do you have some kind of anti-Bakura union now?"

"Oh shut up already, you idiot," Ryou told and kissed him to make his point clear. Bakura responded with the same want as always, wrapping his arms around him and slowly backing him against the desk. Ryou noticed his back hit the desk and remember that the classes were about to start. What if they were walked in on?

"Bakura... we shouldn't..."

The other paid no heed and licked and bit his neck, hands traveling downwards to his hips and thigh.

"Not now... Aah!" The other had pushed him laying on the desk, causing Ryou to yelp in surprise. Bakura silenced him with a kiss and crawled on top of him, hands working under his shirt and inner thigh now. The mouth went to work with his yaw, making way to his ear lope.

"The classes... oh please..." It felt so good he was surprised he was still thinking about the stupid classes. He wasn't sure if he was begging for Bakura to stop before they were caught or to keep going. The hand on his thigh massaged in circular motion, working its way up slowly, teeth nipping his bottom lip and the hot body above him rocked slightly, creating friction.

Ryou was starting to lose himself in the heat, tilting his head up and arching off the desk to get closer, hands in the other's hair. Sounds were starting to come from behind the door and before he knew it, he had been pulled standing as the students began pouring in.

Bakura straightened his shirt and handed Ryou his book, ushering him to the door while whispering, "We'll continue where we left off later..." and pushed the dazed boy out of the classroom.

Ryou stood there outside the door, heart beating like crazy. He needed to calm down before he could even think of going to class. Oh crap, he had curing! Dammit! Ryou dashed to run, all thoughts of what might happen "later" gone and replaced with the memories of the last time he had been late from curing. He couldn't believe he was going to be late and all because of that horny bastard! Ryou couldn't believe him either! He turned around a corner and ran straight into someone a little shorter than him. He managed to balance himself but the other fell to the floor.

"Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-!" Ryou apologized and hurried to help the other boy up. "Let me help you."

"No harm done, I didn't watch where I was going either."

"Are you sure you're alright?" Ryou fussed but the boy just waved him off with a smile.

"I'm quite alright, just a bit late."

"So am I! Gosh, I- I'm sorry for keeping you. Where were you heading?"

"To wizarding in the library. I'm Yuugi, by the way."

"Ryou. I won't keep you longer, I should get going too. I'm already late from curing."

"Yeah, my other always tells me to keep my eyes open... I guess I'll see you around." The boy hurried off. No wonder Ryou had never met him if he was a wizard; the different groups rarely mingled with each other, which was a pity. Ryou too started running towards his classroom, trying to think up an explanation for his tardiness. He couldn't exactly say that the dark arts teacher insisted on molesting him and wouldn't let him go until his own students had started to arrive. Not that Ryou had tried terribly hard to get away...

xxxxxxx

Dammit, talk about bad timing... Bakura glared at his students but couldn't blame them for wanting to be early. The last time someone was late, he had used the students to demonstrate demon possession, with a lower class demon of course as the headmaster had told him not to use a higher class, what with the parents already after his blood.

"I trust you have all done your homework." He didn't need to ask, everyone had done their homework. "Today we're going to start a small project on the soul, passing on, death and fun stuff like that." He smirked to his class and some smiled back uneasily. "First I need you to fill something out for me."

"What's that?"

"I release form that states that if you die, I cannot be held accountable." Bakura gave the student a sharp look and the students looked absolutely horrified. "I'm kidding, sheesh..." The sheets of paper flew to the teenagers and they looked so relieved to see it was only a pop quiz. "You're not really going to die and you're perfectly safe. Unless you get less than ten points from the quiz, of course."

While the students worked on the sheet, Bakura wrote directions on the black board. This was going to be a fun project, for him at least. He still couldn't believe he had gotten permission to do this, but apparently the headmaster had thought that this was great idea. It was a relief to be working as it gave him something else to think and as much as he disliked children, he had sort of grown fond of the little warlocks he worked with. Of course, none of them were children anymore, more like young adults but he would refer to them as brats until each and every one of them had passed the final exams. They all would, of course, thanks to his awesome teaching ability. Yes, he was being very honest with himself.


	19. Physical

**Physical**

"Ok, to the nurse you go," Bakura sent one of his students off. Only the one with a bleeding arm could go though, that one girl with a black eye and the one with a twisted ankle would have to stay until the class was over. The ones not excused whined and complained, but he just waved them off with a "go cry to your mommy." They told him that their daddies could get him fired and limbed back to their seats. Bakura rolled his eyes.

"Gods, you're all so pathetic cry babies! If you can't take a little pain, you'll never become good warlocks! You have no talent and you're terrible screw ups! Just how are you planning to pass?" After his "pep talk" he stopped to glare at his students who attempted to glare back, unsuccessfully.

"Tell you what, I'm going to let you out early but we'll have to continue this next time." He gave his students a little mercy this time but he would work them harder next time. "You're dismissed."

All the students got up and practically ran out of the room, just stopping for a second to pick up their stuff. Bakura watched them go before rounding his desk and sitting down to check the pop quiz, his hopes not very high and he wasn't disappointed for the most part but there were few students that stood out by getting more points than the rest. At the spur of the moment he drew smiley faces on them and wrote something like "good" or "congratulations, you're not as ignorant as I thought." The smilies looked more like they were grinning evilly than smiling happily.

He rather liked his job, more than he had expected even. It wasn't as exciting as he would have liked but he was never bored either. Especially with all his extra curricular activities with Ryou, who was now an important part of his life. He guessed being mind linked tended to do that. He hadn't had anyone special in his life before and it wasn't as horrible as he had thought, despite the rough start.

xxxxxxx

_...and in case of trouble, the other turns for his/her other (referred as "the other" or "my other", normally) for help, which is not always a good idea because..._

It was just a small side note and he had almost missed it, but there it was, finally. A clue. Ryou nearly jumped from his bed and ran to Bakura right then, but a glance at the clock revealed that it was way past midnight and that wouldn't be a good idea. Besides, he was a bit hesitant to be alone with the other right now. He would wait till tomorrow and tell Bakura after school, or between classes. He would not start calling Bakura his other though, he would rather call him "Bakukins" or something equally as stupid...

Right then Malik marched through the door, looking tired but sporting a smile, which soon turned into a frown as he spotted Ryou. "I thought you'd be asleep."

Ryou sighed, deciding this had gone on long enough. "Look, Malik, I'm sorry I yelled at you the other morning... You're just worried and I completely blew it at your face. Forgive me?"

Malik studied him for a while, before his face broke into a grin. "Fine, but only because you're so damn cute. Maybe I should just stay out of your business from now on."

"Oh but you simply wouldn't be Malik if you weren't so annoying and nosy."

"Hey!"

Ryou just laughed and Malik soon joined him. They knew that if they were able to tease each other like this all their disagreements were put behind them. Ryou went back to his book and Malik eyed it curiously while digging out his school books.

"What are you reading?"

"A book about mind links," Ryou replied absently, concentrating on reading. "Mariku lent it to me. Do you know where he got it?" He had reached the end of a chapter and forced his attention out of the book.

"He never mentioned it." Malik shrugged. "I could ask him though." He frowned at something in his notebook and opened a book. "Want to help me with my healing homework?" he asked hopefully, giving Ryou a pleading look. Ryou rolled his eyes but got up and sat on Malik's bed instead.

"Alright, what do you need help with?"

"You did this already, right? Can I copy yours?"

"No, Malik. You wouldn't learn that way."

"Aw, but I don't even like healing... Spell casting is so much more fun!" Malik exclaimed, like the mere thought of it got him all hyped up, as it probably did. "Come on Ryou. It's getting late and we both have to get up early tomorrow. I promise I'll go this through tomorrow right after school. Pleeaaase..."

Ryou sighed in defeat. "Fine." He should learn to stay stronger in the face of his friend's pleading. He fetched his own notebook and showed it to Malik who thanked him none stop for the rest of the evening until they went to bed. He swore he could still hear his voice just before he fell asleep and just hoped he wouldn't have nightmares about it.

xxxxxxx

Ryou and Malik went to school together the next morning, had lunch together and practiced stuff together in healing class, just like they used to. Ryou would still make sure that his friend did read through and _learn_ the things he had copied from Ryou, and didn't run off to somewhere, like to be with Mariku or some of his other friends. _After_ he had told about his discovery to Bakura.

After school everyone rushed about, pushing each other as if in some kind of terrible hurry. Ryou had no idea where they were heading and he had lost Malik somewhere in the mass of people. It wasn't Friday yet and he hadn't heard about anything special so he just shrugged it off and tried to get to his locker without being squashed. He hadn't realized this school had so many people...

He dumped all his school books in and took the booklet out, deciding to get all his stuff later. He waited for his fellow students to leave so it wouldn't be so crowded before heading to the dark arts class. People were pouring out of it, apparently being held over time. Ryou was so excited about his new clue that he barely noticed how the dark arts students coughed, sported a bruise or two and how some were limping towards the nurse's office, all with shocked expressions. He did notice that the classroom smelled like smoke though and saw Bakura opening a few windows.

He entered cautiously and knocked on the door frame. Bakura opened the last window and breathed the fresh air before turning around and fixing his leer on Ryou. Ryou took a step back and gave the other a nervous smile.

"H-hi..." He temporary forgot why he had come there in the first place.

"Well hello. What brings you here?"

"I-I" Without realizing it, Ryou had started walking towards Bakura who leaned casually on the edge of his desk, a smirk on his face. He was drawing him in and he couldn't help it.

"You?" When Ryou was close enough, Bakura placed his hands on his hips and pulled him in the rest of the way. Now that they were so close Ryou could see the faintest tints of red in Bakura's eyes and he wondered if it was just an after effect of some strong magic used or something else... Should he be worried? It had never meant good for him when it had happened before.

All thoughts were wiped off when their lips met, gently at first as if not to scare him away. The physical contact felt nice and as much as he might deny it, he craved for it, too. To not be close just mentally but physically as well. Ryou moved to put his arm around the other but his other hand felt heavy, like he was holding something in it.

Oh yes, the book, the reason why he was here. Ryou broke away, pushing Bakura's shoulders with the small book in one hand. "Please, this is not why I came."

"What is it now?" Bakura sounded angry and frustrated.

"I think I might have found-" Ryou found a stray hand traveling downwards and stopped to pull it back up. "Could you not?"

"Aw, but I want to do naughty things to you..." Bakura purred in Ryou's ear, licking the lope and making him shiver.

"B-but this is important..." Ryou tried though his eyes had become half lidded as the lips worked on his throat and the hands tried to find more skin.

"You can always tell me later."

"B-but-"

Ryou was harshly pushed to a student's desk little ways behind them. "Shut up Ryou." Bakura kissed him hungrily before locking their gazes again. "Don't you want this at all?"

"I-I..."

"Well? Tell you what, tell me you don't want me and I'll stop and never bring this up again."

"What?"

"Yes, just say 'Bakura, I don't want you, now get off of me you sick bastard'," Bakura instructed but it didn't quite register in Ryou's mind. Yes, he was attracted to Bakura and did want him but he wasn't about to admit it out loud.

"What if I just told you to stop? Would you?" Ryou asked instead.

Bakura sighed. "I probably would... You make me so frustrated, gods..." He ground into Ryou, having worked his way between his thighs, making Ryou gasp in surprise. "Feel what you do to me?" Bakura asked, keeping up steady pace. Ryou was starting to feel a bit dizzy and so hot, breath coming in short pants.

"B-Bakura..." He threw his head back, allowing the other to nip and lick his neck, hand moving downwards to clasp his jeans' button. Ryou tensed up and Bakura moved to whisper in his ear.

"Relax... I'll make you feel good..." Bakura undid his pants and wormed his hand inside, fingers starting to play with Ryou's hardening length. Ryou breathing became heavier, eyes glazing over, no one else having ever touched him like this. Bakura lifted his hips up to move his pants and underwear lower, giving him freer access. Ryou moaned deeply as the hand began to bump steadily, thumb ghosting over the tip.

"You like that?"

"O-oh yes! Bakura please..."

"Please _what_?"

"...more..."

Bakura chuckled darkly, lowering his head down to lick the tip, taking the head into his mouth and sucking. Ryou instantly cried out and fisted his hair, trying to buck up but being help down.

"Oh Bakura! Ah!"

Bakura smirked, engulfing him, making Ryou scream. It didn't take long for him to come, not being used to this sort of pleasure. It took Ryou a good while to come down from his high but when he did he saw Bakura grinning knowingly.

"You're welcome."

Ryou blushed, not able to help it. His eyes traveled downwards and then darted up; the blush deeper than before. "W-would you like me to, uh..."

"Oh that would be very nice."

"Do you mind if I...just...um..."

"It's ok."

Ryou smiled gratefully, a tentative hand going to brush against Bakura's pants, causing him to hiss.

"Don't you dare tease me."

Something very impish flashed through Ryou's eyes. "Oh? What're you going to do about it?" When Bakura's eyes widened Ryou just continued to smile sweetly, backing the other up against the desk, hand playing with the zipper but not opening it. He rather liked this new sense of control and was planning on taking advantage of it. He went to kiss Bakura, nipping and sucking on his lip, traveling down to his yaw and neck, trying to find something the other liked. The loudest moans came from the rougher treatment so he used his teeth more, sometimes drawing blood, unzipping the pants in the meanwhile and slipped his hand inside, still a bit bashful about what he was about to do.

Bakura encouraged him by taking a hold of his hand and guiding it. Ryou was encouraged by the groan the other let out and he began moving his hand, slowly and hesitantly at first, constantly waiting that he would do something wrong. Judging by the sounds Bakura emitted and from the way his neck arched, he was doing everything right though, and Ryou got bolder in his movements.

"Oh Ryou... my Ryou..."

Ryou blushed at the possessive endearment but he liked it, as long as Bakura would be his too.

_...harder.._.

"A-alright." Ryou was startled by the mental plea but tried to comply. Bakura's knuckles turned white as he squeezed the desk and his moans and cries got louder. Ryou wondered if someone would hear them but sensed a spell in the air that held the voice in.

With his eyes closed, head tossed back and cries of pleasure escaping from his lips, Bakura was an erotic sight, one that Ryou couldn't take his eyes off of. He pondered if he would get to see more of it in the future, the thought not at all unpleasant.

He launched to kiss the other, to swallow the muffled yells as he came.

xxxxxxx

"That's your lead?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's not a very good one and I wouldn't get my hopes up just yet." Bakura sure wouldn't. They had sat on the classroom floor to study the book together and Ryou had told him what he suspected. He didn't think it was likely but didn't completely turn it down either. There weren't many who were willing to connect themselves to someone else so it was unlikely that there would be one right under their noses. Mind linking business was complicated and normally needed both parties to agree and be willing to commit. "Normally" of course meaning "not in their case".

"But it's better than nothing." Ryou shrugged, turning a page and squinting to see the picture in the next page.

"Agreed. I'll look at the list of students and find out which year he's on and we'll corner him somewhere in between classes."

"We mustn't scare him away though, or else he might not tell us anything."

"Me? Scare him away? Never!" Bakura jested with a grin, and Ryou just rolled his eyes. "Anyways, he's got nothing to be afraid of, unless he's under sixteen." It was illegal to form a link under sixteen years of age. It used not to have an age limit but after many parents linking with their children had caused some trouble, The Counsel had changed it and also made it so you weren't allowed to link with a too close relative.

"I don't think he is, first or second years don't have wizarding, only the basics of spell casting and the language," Ryou said while reading on. "I know because Malik used to be in the basics but couldn't move higher because of his poor language use..."

"What kind of magic does he have anyway? He's everywhere, he even came to my first summoning class last week."

"Since when have you taught summoning?" Ryou lifted his eyes from the book, finally.

"Since last week. The guy who taught it retired or got sucked through a portal or something." Bakura didn't know but all sorts of rumors were flying around. It wasn't uncommon for a magic teacher to disappear, some got bored of their jobs and left, some had a mishap and died or vanished or really did get sucked through a portal.

"Well, about Malik, he's sort of a mix and no one really knows what he's specialized in yet. The school doesn't teach fairy magic so he's going to seek out a fairy willing to teach him after he graduates, or so he says."

Bakura nodded and yawned, stretching out, his joints popping. "It's getting late, we should go to bed."

Ryou agreed wholeheartedly, looking tired as well and leaned in for a kiss before he got up. In moments like these, when Ryou looked at him with such adoration, he believed that the world hadn't screwed him over as bad as he had thought and that he too could be a better person. It was scary, but not unpleasant.

Ryou stopped to curse something at the door before running out into the hallway. Bakura noticed that he had left his book and tucked it under his arm before also getting up, turning the lights off and locking the door as he went. They didn't have to worry about the cleaning staff barging in on them because they had stopped cleaning the classroom long ago for a reason he wasn't so sure of. He had to take it up to himself to clean, which he did once a week or gave detention to some students and made them do it for him as a punishment.

His night vision was better than average so he spotted Mariku lurking around, deciding to have a chat with him, about the book and other things. He was tired but never too tired to pester the vampire.


	20. Encounter

**Encounter**

Ryou rushed into the room only to find his friend sitting on his bed, reading a textbook. Malik blinked at him innocently while Ryou caught his breath.

"Where did you run off to? I thought you were going to help me with this," Malik asked, closing the book when Ryou made it over to his bed.

"Sorry, I forgot... I went to see Bakura and sort of lost track of time."

"Oh okay. That explains why your zipper's undone then," Malik said off-handedly, making Ryou's eyes nearly pop out of his head and he quickly checked. It wasn't undone. Malik chuckled on his side of the room, smiling knowingly when Ryou glared at him.

"Hah! I knew it! Track of time wasn't the only thing you lost, huh?" Malik kept grinning, tossing his book with the rest of them lying on the floor. "So, how was it?"

Ryou huffed in annoyance. How did Malik know? "For your information, we didn't go all the way. How do you know these things anyway?"

Malik shrugged. "Lucky guess? It was only a matter of time, after all. I knew you had something going on from the beginning."

"We did not! I didn't even like him at first. He was arrogant, self-centered and out of his mind! Not that he isn't now..."

"Oh please... You're just so god damn oblivious! But anyways, I actually did my homework and studied some extra even without you here, like we agreed." Malik had the sense to change the subject before they broke into another argument.

"...good." Ryou wasn't completely happy with how their conversation had turned out but wasn't about to start a fight. He still had his own homework to do and it was getting late. He wanted to go to bed but his sense of duty kept him awake.

"Well, I'm off, bye," Malik told with a glance on the clock on the wall and got up.

"But it's school night, you should be sleeping," Ryou protested.

"Don't worry, I took a nap and I won't be long, okay?"

"Fine..."

"Thank you, mother."

Ryou chucked a notebook at him but it hit the closed door. "Why am I even friends with him?" he wondered out loud though he knew the answer. Life had been terribly lonely before he started school here and met Malik. At first, he had been a bit over-whelmed by the other with all his weird quirks but had gotten used to him because he had to since they were living together. Malik had changed over the years, too. He hadn't been very sociable and kept to himself, never being rude but there had been something so fake about his politeness. Slowly he had opened up to Ryou and then to the rest of the world, turning out to be just the kind of friend Ryou needed.

xxxxxxx

"What are you doing here, Mariku? Stalking your boy-toy again?" Bakura smirked, pocketing his hands and finding all sort of junk. He should really empty them sometime... A flash of annoyance went past the other's eyes. Annoying the vampire was one of his favorite past times, especially now when he wasn't about to get killed.

"Don't use such degrading terms when speaking of him, Bakura, I could still snap you in half." Something in Mariku's tone told Bakura that he wasn't quite serious. Bakura had gotten pretty good at reading the other over the years though they had never been close, not that they would ever admit it even if they had been.

"And I'm not stalking him, I'm waiting for him."

"On a school night?" Not that he cared... Mariku looked at him weirdly and he just waved it off. "Never mind, it's not my business what you two do and when."

"You are right about that one."

They stood in silence in the night, breathing the fresh air and listening to the sounds of late birds and small insects along with other nocturnal life that lived in the woods. The silence was never awkward between them; they had gotten used to it during all the time they had to spend together in circumstances where they were either silent, or dead.

The loud sound of feet alerted them and Malik came to view. Mariku relaxed and his features softened at the sight of him, Bakura noticed.

"Mariku! ...Bakura." Malik pecked the vampire and gave Bakura a nod, which was reluctantly returned.

"Well, if you're going to get all affectionate, I better get going." Bakura stretched, yawning. "Night Mariku, fairy-boy. Don't have too much fun."

"Get out of here you brat."

Bakura chuckled but went on his way, not at all offended, long used to being called a brat and maybe it was even justified. Some sleep would be nice, though he wondered if it would come to him or be nightmare free, which it rarely was, especially when he didn't have a Ryou to cuddle with. He glanced over his shoulder and saw a light shining on Ryou's window; he was probably doing his homework, tired as Bakura was and wishing for some sleep.

Things with Ryou had gotten a bit out of hand earlier but he didn't regret it, he just wondered if Ryou did... In that case, he would have to _apologize_, something he hated to do, and it would be a major set back. He would just have to bring it up at some point and hope for the best. Ryou sure hadn't complained at the time though...

Deciding that he wouldn't think about this now and get some sleep, slipping out of his clothing and under the covers after getting to his room, not bothering to turn on the lights or putting pajamas on. He went through his mental check list and made sure everything was set for tomorrow before drifting off to sleep, and instead of having nightmares about one of his near death experiences, he dreamed of a screaming Ryou who stomped on his heart repeatedly. He woke up somewhere in the middle of it and was unable to sleep after that, working on his future lessons instead. And he had thought his nightmares so far had been bad...

xxxxxxx

Light shone through the curtains, indicating morning and telling Bakura to put all his books and papers away. He put some of them in his bag and the rest in the drawer or bookshelf, getting up and stretching out, deciding to go brush his teeth in the bathroom he shared with most people working here before anyone else awoke. When all of the staff was awake it would be near impossible to get anywhere near a sink, let alone shower. He had considered getting his own apartment from the town but this was so much cheaper and closer to the school so his trip to work only took a few seconds and couldn't be more than five meters.

He swiftly made his way down the stairs and out into the chilly morning, heading to the teachers' lounge. He would get his hands on Yuugi's file and schedule before anyone else got there. Too bad the files were in alphabetical order and he had no idea what was Yuugi's last name. It wouldn't be a problem otherwise but technically one wasn't allowed to use magic in the lounge in order to avoid conflicts because sometimes tensions ran high, especially between the different sorts of magic users.

Bakura took a quick look around to see if anyone was there and knocked on the file drawer when no one was in sight. Soon a single file pounced from the drawer straight into his hands. Mutou, Yuugi, it read and Bakura smirked in satisfaction.

"An early riser, I see."

He jumped a bit at the voice and he quickly closed the file, face forming into a frown which almost turned into a glare when he saw who it was. The only thing keeping the glare at bay was the talk the headmaster had given him just the other day about respecting his colleagues. "More like a no sleeper. What are you doing here so early?"

Spellwright gestured towards his desk in a corner which was filled with books and papers, looking messy. "I was just sorting out my things before the classes start. Without much success as you can probably tell..."

Bakura raised a brow at the other's surprisingly civil behavior towards him and guessed the headmaster must have talked to him too. "Yes..." he just commented, not having much to say about the matter, nothing even half polite anyway. He reopened the file and quickly found the information he was looking for, placing it back to its place before the old man got too curios.

"Actually, now that you're here... I'm collecting a list of the people who are planning on attending the staff dinner next week. Are you coming?" the fore mentioned old man asked, pulling out a list of names.

"No," Bakura told bluntly, not the least bit interested in going out with any of his fellow staff members. They could socialize among themselves, he wanted no part in it. He had been forced to attend one of these staff dinners when he had first started to work there and it hadn't been something he wanted to repeat. Just a bunch of boring, and a lot older, people talking about work, how good the food was, work, students, work, their uninteresting family affairs, work, politics, work, child upbringing and then some more about work just for good measure.

"Oh but it would be a good chance to get to know people." And talk about work.

"No thanks, I know more than enough people already." He smiled sourly. "Excuse me," Bakura excused himself, afraid that he would get an overdose of social contact. The next stop would be Ryou's locker and he scribbled a note while he walked to drop through the metal door. "_Meet me in front of the library before four_," the note said and was dropped through the small horizontal holes.

xxxxxx

That morning Ryou ran to his locker before the first class. He had slept late because of staying up so late last night. He threw the books he didn't need in and took some out. A note fell from between the books and he bent to pick it up, deciding to read it later, hurrying to class. He made it because the teacher was a few minutes late, took his seat, put his books on the desk and dug out the note he had found earlier. He recognized the hand writing as Bakura's and frowned at the strictly informative tone. What if he had somewhere to be at four after school? Didn't think about that, huh? Ryou decided not to be angry about this as he had no plans and concentrated on the lesson instead.

Later that day when Ryou was walking to the cafeteria with Malik, chatting about nothing too important, a hand came down on his shoulder, grabbing it hard and making him jump about two meters. Ryou turned around and came face to face with an elderly man with sharp and intelligent eyes, a few scars on his face and worn clothes.

"W-what..?"

"No wait, you're not him." The man rudely pushed him away. "Excuse me."

Ryou and Malik stared after him as he limbed out of sight, disappearing into the crowd. They shared a confused glance before turning and continuing their way to eat.

"What do you think that was about?" Malik asked when they reached the lunch line.

"I have no idea..."

xxxxxxx

They met up in front of the library like they had agreed to and waited for Yuugi. There was still at least fifteen minutes before the class ended so they got as comfortable as one could standing in a hallway, leaning on walls and pocketing or folding their arms. Neither said anything and the silence was getting pressing. Ryou fidgeted nervously whereas Bakura seemed to be moping, deep in thought. Something was troubling him, Ryou just didn't know what; the information was out of his reach.

"Um... Bakura?" Ryou tried, tired of the silence and not knowing what was wrong.

"Hmm?" Bakura acknowledged, turning his eyes on Ryou and lifting a brow.

"What's the matter?" the boy asked, worry in his voice.

Bakura stared at the opposite wall again. "Nothing."

Ryou sighed at the other's stubbornness. "I know something's bothering you. You can tell me. Do you have stress at work? Or... maybe you got into a fight with Mr Spellwright again? Have you been sleeping?" Ryou tried to guess but none of his guesses caused a reaction of any sort. He frowned. "Does it have something to do with me?" There. A weight shift. It was slight but didn't go unnoticed.

"So it has... What... Did I do something wrong? Or-"

"You did nothing wrong."

"Then what..?"

Bakura closed his eyes for a second before turning sideways to fully face Ryou who by now was quite worried. "It's just my own insecurities getting in the way... and I didn't sleep last night."

"You have insecurities?" Ryou was genuinely surprised. The other always seemed so confident and sure of himself, except maybe when it came to other than physical closeness. "Are you... worried about us? You know, I have my moments of insecurity, too, but I try to keep positive." He gave a small smile.

"You do realize that I could get fired and you could get expelled if we were ever found out?"

"Yeah... I know but that's not really it, is it? You have never been uncomfortable with breaking the rules..." He just had this gut feeling, which came partly from being around the other so much, and partly from the link. It somehow bothered him that Bakura was avoiding the subject of what was really wrong.

"Look," Bakura ran a hand through his hair, "there's nothing you can do about it you haven't been doing already." One corner of his mouth lifted into a half smile. It was a rare sight indeed; not a smirk but a real smile, however small. Ryou couldn't fight the smile on his own face and decided to drop the subject, just when the library doors opened and the students began pouring out.

"Please don't scare him too bad," Ryou pleaded as they started looking for a familiar face. The students were rushing to get to freedom as this was the final class of the day and there were some faces Ryou recognized from the halls or the cafeteria but most he hadn't seen before.

"Of course I won't." But even as he said this, Bakura had this gleam in his eye and Ryou didn't trust him to keep his word.

"Just let me do the talking, alright?" Soon the familiar face of Yuugi emerged and before Ryou could react, Bakura had already dragged them both to the nearest empty room.

"Listen short stuff, you're going to answer to all of our questions of you know what's good for you."

"Bakura, please." Ryou sent him an annoyed glance, which was ignored, and spoke to Yuugi who looked terribly confused. "He meant to say, if you could answer some questions, that would be very helpful."

"What do you want to know?" Yuugi questioned, glancing nervously at Bakura but mostly directing the question to Ryou.

"Is it true that you share a mind link with someone?" Bakura asked, with no beating around the bush and Ryou thought he was being a bit too unsubtle.

"Um... why do you want to know?"

"Just answer the question!"

"Bakura! Please, we won't tell anyone if you don't want us to but we really need to know," Ryou spoke a lot more calmly than he felt but it seemed to ease Yuugi and distract him from Bakura's... information gathering antics.

"Well, it is true but how does it concern you two?"

"Long story short, we accidentally got linked. You think you could help us out with something, Yuugi?"

The shorter boy shook his head and looked at them like he thought they were both stupid. "You can't accidentally mind link, that's impossible."

"The hell do you know?!" Bakura spat, patience long lost. Judging from the pin pricks of red starting to emerge in his eyes, Yuugi had struck a nerve. Ryou was starting to get worried that things would get out of hand soon if Bakura didn't calm down. It seemed that it was up to Ryou to make sure Yuugi didn't "accidentally" end up dead.

Ryou placed a hand on the other's arm in something he hoped to be a calming gesture. He flinched when Bakura turned his intense, partly red glare at him.

"What?"

Ryou smiled but it was weak. "You're losing it, calm yourself."

Bakura snorted and pulled his arm away. "I am calm." He clearly wasn't but the redness had gone down a notch so they were out of the danger zone for now.

"I think we've scared him enough already," Ryou said, succeeding in sounding soothing even though he was still nervous. Sometimes he just walked on such thin ice with Bakura that it made him wonder how he hadn't fallen through and drowned yet.

Yuugi watched their exchange curiously, not afraid anymore. "You two do seem pretty close but I'm not sure if I'm buying the accidental mind link thing yet... Are you related?"

"No," they said as one and glanced at each other with a slight frown.

Yuugi hid his laugh behind his hand. "You'll get used to that, and finishing each other's sentences." He spoke from experience. "It's like that with my other too, at first it was freaky though..." He frowned. "But aren't you a teacher and student? Isn't it a bit..." he let the rest of the sentence fade off.

"If you tell anyone about this I'll cut out your bowels and shove them so far up your ass you can taste them in your mouth, got it?"

"He could actually do that." Ryou decided to back Bakura up on this as he didn't want to get found out either. He had no idea if that could be done but he guessed Bakura would find a way.

Yuugi raised his hands. "I won't tell anyone, I promise, but um... my grandpa will get worried if I'm not home soon so..."

Ryou nodded. "Alright. Meet us... um..."

"On Friday after school," Bakura cut in.

"Yes, on Friday and bring your other with you, okay?"

"Sure." Yuugi smiled, backing to the door. Before getting out of the room he made a zipping motion in front of his mouth. "My lips are sealed."

"They'd better be..." Bakura muttered, not looking happy about how things turned out but he would live. Ryou on the other hand didn't mind that they couldn't have a deeper conversation right then and there, at least they would have one in the near future. Friday was two days away but they could wait that long.

Suddenly Ryou remember the strange old man he had met earlier who had mistaken him for someone else. Who else could he be mistaken for than Bakura? They did look alike at first glance. "Hey Bakura?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you expecting someone? I mean, um... I met this man who mistook me for someone else and I was just wondering..."

"No..." Bakura frowned. "What did he look like? Maybe he was someone I know."

"Well..." Ryou started. "He was an older man, sort of worn-out looking, lots of scars and really sharp eyes, kind of unnerving, actually..." He could have sworn that Bakura's breathing hitched for a second but it was over so fast that he couldn't be sure. Something did flash through his eyes though, something like disbelief, nervousness or anger. It made Ryou nervous too that Bakura had reacted like this and tried to question him about it but the questions were brushed off.

"Listen Ryou, if you meet him again, especially if you're alone, just get away from him. I don't care of that's rude or whatever." He had grabbed Ryou's shoulders and had a look of urgency, shaking the boy a bit. "Promise me."

"Bakura, what-?"

"Promise!"

"A-alright, I promise but-" Ryou began but was pulled close and a kiss was planted on his forehead.

"I have to go take care of something." Bakura whispered and was about to let go and leave but seemed to change his mind about something and pulled Ryou into a kiss. Ryou was taken back by this sudden show of passion and it made his knees feel weak, standing there too surprised to react before Bakura pulled away and darted out of the room to take care of this "something". Ryou sank to his knees and touched his lips, a goofy and love struck smile creeping on his face.


	21. Never

**Never**

Friday rolled around and Ryou soon found himself sitting in a cafe opposite to a distracted Bakura. He hadn't been himself after yesterday and Ryou knew for a fact that he hadn't slept last night. Something was bothering him and Ryou had a good guess what that could be but had yet to figure out a way to bring it up. It had to have something to do with that strange man Ryou had met in the hallway. Now that he thought of it, the man had seemed familiar somehow, like he had run into him at some point but couldn't remember when or where.

They had ordered themselves some tea while they waited and now Ryou glanced over at Bakura while taking a sip. Bakura hadn't touched his drink and it had already stopped steaming.

"Your tea is getting cold..." Ryou pointed out, placing his own cup down to gaze worriedly at the other who barely reacted.

"Oh... You're right," Bakura answered, directing a fleeting stare at his tea but not making a move to do anything about it.

"Are you feeling fine?" He already knew the answer but hoped to get some kind of explanation, only receiving a nod for his efforts. Ryou sighed and took it up to himself to get to the bottom of this. "This has something to do with the man from yesterday, doesn't it? Did you manage to find him?"

Bakura crossed his arms as a tell-tale sign of stubbornness and Ryou knew he wouldn't be getting any answers. "What makes you think it has something to do with _him_?"

"Well, what else could it be?"

Bakura's eyes narrowed. "Don't stick your nose into matters that do not concern you."

Ryou frowned at the harshly spoken words. "If it concerns you, it concerns me, too."

"What concerns who?" cut in before Bakura had time to respond and they both turned to see the two similar looking faces. The only difference seemed to be in height and the sharpness of features, they noticed. Ryou gestured for the two to take their seats and they did so, Yuugi sitting next to Ryou and the new face next to Bakura who eyed him warily. Yuugi beamed all around and took care of the introductions.

"These are the people I told you about. This is Ryou and that's Bakura. Guys, this is Atemu, my other and uh... my lover." Yuugi dusted pink.

"Nice to meet you, Atemu." Ryou smiled and got one in return.

"Yeah, whatever." Bakura grumbled. "Can we just get to business?"

"Is he always like that?" Atemu asked, pointing at Bakura with his thumb.

"Yes." Ryou felt like adding "in public" but decided against going into further details. "But he has a point though."

"Agreed. What do you want to know?" Yuugi asked, and the two white haired males glanced at each other.

"How long does it take for the link to fully form?" Bakura started, clearly having a better idea of what to ask than Ryou did.

Yuugi and Atemu seemed to think it over, sending each other glances over the table. They reached some sort of agreement apparently and nodded in unison.

"For us it took about-" Yuugi started.

"-a month or so but I guess it's personal and if-" Atemu continued.

"-you really are forcefully linked there's no real way of knowing."

"Exactly. The feelings normally come first, then the audio and it's-"

"-really messed up at first and difficult to control but-"

"-you'll get a hang of it pretty soon," Atemu finished their little explanation. Ryou and Bakura exchanged weirded out looks, deciding then that they would never become like Yuugi and Atemu if it only could be avoided.

"Well... How did you get through the 'messed up' phase?" Ryou asked, a bit worried to know that the worst was yet to come. He had thought that the initial shock after getting linked had been the real obstacle but now it seemed that wasn't the case.

"We knew what to expect and Yuugi and I were really close to begin with." Atemu reached across the table to hold Yuugi's hand. The boy smiled warmly and nodded.

"Hm. So when the line separating our thoughts began to blur, it wasn't that bad; we knew each other so well that sharing thoughts and feelings seemed... natural."

Bakura raised his hand. "Wait... 'The line separating your thoughts'?"

"Yes, it was really difficult to tell who thought what for a couple of days but then it gets better and you'll be in control of it again." Yuugi just shrugged like it wasn't a big deal but Bakura's eye twitched like it did when he was irritated but not right out angry and Ryou looked uncertain.

"What you're saying is that before we can learn to control it, we will lose our privacy completely?"

"Well... not completely, I mean, you can still have some private thoughts, you just can't decide which. And it's only for a couple of days."

"It wasn't a big deal."

"It is a 'big deal'!" Bakura slammed his hands on the table and stood up so suddenly that the chair fell down with a loud clank. People in the cafe turned to look at them, startled by the sound and yelling.

"Bakura calm down, you're causing a scene," Atemu tried but got a nasty glare.

"Fuck you and mini-you, I'm leaving." Bakura stormed off, not bothering with the fallen chair or the waitress he pushed on his way out. Ryou looked helplessly between the retreating back and the duo before he too got up.

"Excuse me," he muttered and ran after the other, calling out for him to wait up.

xxxxxxx

"Bakura!" He heard Ryou call after him but didn't slow down. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone but, somewhere beyond his anger and shock, he was glad that the other had ran after him instead of staying in the cafe and socializing with the freaks. "Please wait!" Running footsteps were heard and a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Please don't run away from me."

Bakura shook his shoulder free. "I'm not running from _you_."

"It sure seems like that to me," Ryou pointed out, falling instep with Bakura. "Come on, talk to me. What's the matter now?"

Shouldn't Ryou _know_? "_Everything_ is the matter! Everything is going to hell!"

"Don't you yell at me! I've done nothing to you." Ryou sounded upset and Bakura felt just a bit bad but wasn't about to apologize now when he was having a hissy fit.

"I know you haven't..."

"Then don't take your anger out on me," the boy snapped. "It's about what Atemu and Yuugi told, right?" he asked, calmer now, the complete opposite of Bakura.

"Gee, how did you guess?" Bakura knew he was subjecting Ryou to his anger again because Ryou was close and an easy target, but he couldn't help it. It made him feel even worse about himself and it didn't serve to lessen his anger or frustration.

Ryou frowned, keeping up with him but only just. "You can't throw a fit every time things don't go your way, you know. It doesn't solve anything."

Bakura stopped and Ryou walked right past him before halting and turning to face him. "I don't-" Bakura started but was quickly interrupted.

"Yes you do. You slash out or close up like a small child who can't deal with drawbacks. You don't-"

"Shut up!" Bakura yelled, tired of hearing what Ryou had to say. He hadn't asked him to come after him in the first place! He had only wanted some time to fume in peace, but had he got it? _No_! "I don't want to hear your theory about how you _think_ I am. You think you know me so well but-!"

"I do know you! In fact, I know you better than anyone else. You just don't want to admit it because you think it would be some sort of weakness!"

"I thought I told you to shut the hell up. I don't need to hear this," Bakura hissed, tired of yelling.

"No!" Ryou shook his head. "You need to learn to listen to others! I _thought_ we were supposed to be in some sort of relationship but you never act it, except maybe when there's a chance to get in my pants."

Why did Ryou have to bring that up? It wasn't what this was about. ...Or was it? "What did you expect? Gifts and sweet words and moonlit walks?"

Ryou crossed his arms in a very Bakura-like manner. "Certainly not, but those would be nice." He sighed and let his arms drop, appearing a whole lot less pissed, giving the other almost a pleading look. "I don't really need any of those but if you could, I don't know... tell me that you care once in a while."

"I didn't know you needed verbal assurance." Bakura was still sounding a bit hissy but it was lessening in a rapid pace. Even he couldn't stay angry after a confession like that.

"Well... I-"

"I do care, a lot more than I'm comfortable with, and that will continue to be so unless mentioned otherwise when I'm not angry or drunk." Bakura attempted a smile and it was a lot easier to accomplish when Ryou smiled back at him, looking all happy and just because of some simple words. He had the power to make Ryou happy with mere words, but also he could make him absolutely miserable just the same. Would that apply to himself as well?

"That's good to hear." A mischievous smirk formed onto Bakura's face at the whispered words.

"How dare you doubt it? That's so cruel of you, my dear."

Ryou backed away a bit. "Um..."

"What?" Bakura asked as innocently as he could while looking positively wicked.

"You only call me that when I'm in trouble or you've something planned I'm not going to like," the boy explained and stepped back a few more times.

"Oh you're going to like my latest... _plan_."

Ryou 'eep'ed and turned to run, not running all that fast though. Bakura chuckled and gave chase, letting the other reach the forest trail before speeding up.

"Come back here you!"

xxxxxxx

Later that evening, when Ryou was sitting in his room just chatting with Malik who was waiting for Mariku to come pick him up, he had a bizarre feeling from Bakura's side of the link. It wasn't like the times when Bakura had nightmares and Ryou would feel this slight feeling of terror from the other end, but this was more real, not fear exactly but something that made Ryou feel unnerved and concerned.

"Ryou?" Malik tried to get his attention again and only partly succeeded. Ryou got up from his bed where he had been sitting and walked to the door in an almost zombie like manner. "Ryou? Hey, what's wrong?"

"I have to go see Bakura, I'll be right back."

Ryou hurried down the stairs and through the yard, power walking and then sprinting the rest of the way as the feeling got stronger as he got closer. Something was not right.

He ran up the stairs to the second floor where Bakura's room was located and reached the door. To his surprise, Ryou heard noise from the other side of the door. Two voices were discussing, one was Bakura's, the other he didn't recognize. Ryou pressed his ear on the door to hear what was being said. He knew he wasn't supposed to poke his nose where it didn't belong but the temptation was just too great.

"-and now you decide to drop by and... you're fucking nuts." The first speaker was Bakura, an angry one at that.

"I'm not into that sort of thing, don't be so crass." There was a pause. "Ah, it seems there's someone at the door. Why don't you let your guest in?"

Ryou backed away from the door, considering just running away but had barely made a decision when the door opened and he found himself facing Bakura.

"I-I just come some other time if you're busy..." Ryou offered hastily and turned to leave when someone grabbed his arm and pulled him back. He turned his head, expecting to see Bakura but instead saw the strange old man from earlier that week.

"Um... hello... I was just leaving-"

"No, no, do come in," the stranger spoke. "There's clearly some _urgent_ matter you must discuss with Bakura here, don't let me bother you." Ryou was guided into the room with little protesting from his part.

"Ryou has nothing to do with this." Bakura pried the man's hand off of Ryou but the door closed anyway and it didn't seem he was going anywhere.

"No? Of course he doesn't, how silly of me! It just so happens that you gaze at him with such _affection_ it's sickening. I know these things, Bakura, and I know _you_..." He pointed an accusing finger. "You adore him, you want him, you... _love_ him." He spat the word out like a curse of the worst kind. "...and he feels the same. Not to mention that he's a _mage._ Oh how have you sunk so low?"

Ryou couldn't fight the blush forming on his face. He hadn't even heard anything past the "you love him" -part, so hung up on it. Could it really..? No way... He glanced at Bakura who looked absolutely mortified.

"I-I d-don't..."

"Oh yes you do. You want to shower him with kisses and gifts and make sweet love to him. And he would let you, too."

"T-that's quite enough." Ryou was glad to find his voice and that it had some strength left in it. "My business here really wasn't that important so I'll be leaving now." He was reluctant to leave Bakura here but figured he could deal with this better if Ryou wasn't there.

"I insist that you stay." The door was locked. The faint click sounded so loud in his ears and promised nothing good. Ryou froze in his position, hand on the door handle, trying to figure out what the hell was going on and what he should do now. Maybe he would be able to unlock the door and-

"Ah!" He jerked his hand away from the suddenly hot door handle and saw his curing powers take care of the burn. It still hurt; why go to such great lengths to keep him there? The only way to find out was to stick around, turn to face whatever was in store for him and pray that he would make it out of this room unharmed, or at least alive.

Ryou glanced at Bakura who was watching him with hints of worry on his face. He smiled a bit to let the other know he was fine before turning to face the one causing all this trouble.

"What do you want with me?"

"I just thought you might fill me in on what's going on. Bakura could just lie to my face but I doubt that you can."

Ryou narrowed his eyes and shifted his weight nervously. "What if I don't want to fill you in?" From the smirk he got he could already figure out the answer: that would not be pretty.

"You will not touch him," Bakura spoke up, stepping so that he was partly between Ryou and his former mentor.

"What are you going to do about it? Use the power of love?" the man taunted and Bakura clenched his fists.

"I don't-"

"Be careful what you say, even if it's going to be a lie, you might break your sweetheart's little mage heart."

Bakura glanced at Ryou whose eyes were pouncing between him and the old man, feeling confused and somewhat disappointed that Bakura was going to deny his love for him. His eyes met Bakura's for a second before the almost red depths turned back to the issue.

"I defeated you once and I can do it again."

"That was pure luck." The man grinned.

"It was skill old man, one that you taught me, I might add."

The air cracked with power and the lamp in the ceiling flickered. The window glass shook and for a second Ryou was sure it would break but it held and the light stopped blinking.

"We can settle our differences but not here."

"Afraid that your dear mage would get hurt?"

"Also, I don't want to lose my job."

Suddenly Ryou understood Malik's hate towards being labeled; he had been reduced from a person called Ryou, to mage, and he absolutely loathed it.

"I do have a name, you know..." he muttered without thinking and got the attention of the other two in the room.

"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you," the older man told, ignoring Bakura for a change.

"...I said I have a name, you can stop calling me a mage." They could just start calling him an idiot-who-can't-keep-his-mouth-shut-when-he-should while they were at it...

"Well, you never told me what it is."

"It's Ryou." He felt like he already had one foot in the grave so he might as well dig it a bit deeper. "I don't know what your beef with Bakura is but I don't think you're wanted here."

"Is that so?" The man crossed his arms and there was something highly familiar in the pose and that arrogant look. "Are you going to make me leave then, _Ryou_?"

Ryou frowned at how even his own name sounded like an insult falling from those lips. Now he knew why Bakura was so screwed up and also where he got his attitude from. "No, but-"

"I am," Bakura cut in and sent Ryou a warning glance that clearly stated 'do not interfere'. The man laughed like it was the biggest joke he had ever heard, but his laugh didn't sound merry, more like deranged.

"_You_?" He wiped away a tear of laughter. "I made you, Bakura, and you would be nothing without me. You _owe_ me."

"He owes you nothing," Ryou stated, sounding much braver than he felt. Did he have a death wish? Ryou hoped that he would have a chance to mentally beat himself for this later. "Whatever you've done for him is overshadowed by the fact that you never cared for him, never loved him. You might have taught him some spells but that's nothing he couldn't have done by himself."

"His own power would have destroyed him first."

"But it destroyed you instead, didn't it?" Ryou was surprised how cool and collected he managed to sound, almost emotionless. It scared him but wasn't about to stop him. That last comment had clearly struck dead on. "See? He doesn't need you anymore and I doubt he feels that he owes you."

The old man shook in rage. "He does for making a fool out of me. No one gets away with attacking me!" The window cracked, the lamp shattered and just before Ryou blacked out, he could hear an enraged yell and then the world ceased to exist for him.

xxxxxxx

When Ryou came back to it, his vision was blurry first but started to clear just when someone collapsed on top of him, breathing heavily and smelling of... blood.

"Bakura?" Ryou prayed that it was Bakura and he was alright. Arms wrapped firmly around him and the person on top buried his head on his shoulder.

"Oh Ryou... Ryou..." The voice was Bakura's but it sounded raspy and continued to chant his name for a while in desperation. "I thought you died... The link was cut off and you stopped breathing. It was awful..."

Ryou held the other while looking around the parts of the room he could see for indications of what had happened here. There was blood on the walls, on the ceiling, on Bakura.

"Are you alright?!" he asked, panic in his voice. What the hell had happened?! "Bakura! What-!" Ryou was silenced by a finger strategically placed.

"Shh... I'm fine, most of it is not mine." The words were breathed against his neck, making him shiver. "I was so afraid I'd lose you... That you'd leave me and I'd be all alone again..." The arms around Ryou tightened their grip and Bakura nuzzled his neck, in an out of character show of affection. He closed his eyes, enjoying the closeness when he felt something press against his thigh with more than casual interest, making his eyes shoot open again.

"B-Bakura? Y-you..."

"Uh, yeah. Using complicated dark magic increases my testosterone level and makes me either highly aggressive... or horny..."

"O-oh..." Ryou's neck was starting to get some extra attention from Bakura's tongue and teeth, which didn't feel half bad but somehow just... "S-so you just... Because I'm the nearest available body, you..." His voice cracked.

"No!" Bakura's head shot up. "Never think that. Not because you're available, because you are you."

Ryou's breath caught in his throat as he stared up on the blood red eyes, and for the first time they didn't seem threatening; they were absolutely beautiful, so alive with darker and lighter tones. Ryou's hand went to make sure the blood stain on the other's cheek wasn't his own and Bakura's eyes became half lidded and something about his gaze made Ryou feel flushed but not entirely uncomfortable.

"Bakura? Was... was your mentor right? A-about..." He couldn't finish his sentence, choked up in his emotions.

"What if he was..?" whispered Bakura, rubbing his nose against Ryou's and letting their fingers intertwine.

"That... that would make me very happy..." The words came out breathy and needy, his free hand, the one that had held the other's cheek, moved to wrap around the neck. He had never felt like this before and he just wanted to... "I-I want to be closer..." His voice was almost inaudible but apparently it was heard.

"Then kiss me, Ryou."

He didn't have to be told twice and that's when he gave himself to Bakura, mind, soul and body. It was only logical that now, when they had full access to each other's mind, they would also have full access to each other's body.

Something grumbled down during their love making, a mental wall carefully placed between two people, allowing them to share thoughts and feelings like they had never been able to before. Was this what they had been so afraid of? They had been afraid for nothing. Now they weren't lonely anymore, and while their physical forms were fueled by carnal need and lust, moaning, crying out and screaming, their souls told of caring and devotion they hadn't known was there.

They knew they were being horribly loud but neither cared at this point. It was irrational to think that they could keep the whole school awake and get away with it but rationality was something they both lacked right now. They would only quiet down when neither had no more voice to yell with.


	22. Aftermath

**Aftermath**

Ryou started waking up slowly when a stray sunbeam hit his eyes. He was warm and content, lying on something soft he deemed as a mattress. They must have made it to the bed at some point.

A warm body was lying partly on top of his, hot breathing hitting the crook of his neck in a steady pace. Ryou smiled, not bothering to open his eyes, moving his head so that the light didn't shine straight into them, and started playing absently with the other's hair.

Bakura…

"_Oh! R-Ryou, I love you!"_

Ryou blushed. Bakura loved him… He felt giddy… happy, and a string of giggles escaped him before he knew it. He sounded so horribly like a girl. Bakura stirred and Ryou could feel him smirk against his neck.

"Gods, Ryou, I was so sure you were a guy last night. What the hell happened?"

Ryou yanked his hair playfully. "You're such a jerk."

"Hm, but you still love me."

"I do…"

Bakura lifted his head to kiss the boy and Ryou's lips were open even before their mouths met. He was in no hurry to get away from Bakura's possessive embrace; there was no school today, the door was locked and the curtains pulled, apart from the small crack that was letting the sun in.

The kiss was slow, tongues dancing and hands petting. Ryou's hands found Bakura's hair and scalp, fingers rubbing, coaxing a purr-like sound deep from Bakura's throat. The annoying beam of light hit Ryou's eye again and he flinched. Bakura's hand stroking his thigh stopped and he pulled away. Ryou whined in protest but took the opportunity to cover his eyes with his hand. Bakura shifted above him and swore heavily before getting up much to Ryou's disappointment. He opened his eyes and lifted his upper body off the bed, leaning on his arm, and watched Bakura dance around the broken glass in search for his missing clothing.

"Where the fuck are my pants?"

"Why are you in such a hurry to get dressed? Come back to bed," Ryou told voice still sleepy.

"I can't. I have to do some cleaning." Bakura had found his pants and now pulled down a curtain to cover something on the floor. A foot peeked from under it and it didn't take a genius to figure out what it was. Ryou tilted his head, his mind still waking up from its blissful sleepy state not quite comprehending yet.

"It… He looks kind of short…" Ryou commented.

"That's because his head is all over the place," Bakura stated absently, now looking for his chalk. Ryou's eyes went wide and his hand flew to his mouth. "If you're going to vomit, do it now before I start cleaning." Bakura began to draw on the wall after finding a relatively clean spot.

"Oh gods…" Ryou fell back on the bed, closing his eyes. He felt sick now. Maybe if he had know, he wouldn't have… Oh who was he kidding? It wouldn't have changed anything if he had known that there was a dead guy in the room as he hadn't been thinking with the head he normally used for thinking last night.

"What-what are you going to do with him?" Ryou asked, glancing at Bakura who was reaching for a book.

"Get rid of him." Bakura flipped through the book, finding the thing he was looking for and let the book hover open in the air. "Want to give me a hand?"

Ryou stared at the man on the floor, not sure if he should be feeling disgusted or sad or angry, maybe at Bakura for acting like this was no big deal, for being so calm. But he wasn't feeling anything now after the first wave of nausea had passed, and that scared him. Shouldn't he care more? The man was dead!

He tore his eyes off the corpse to meet Bakura's who looked at him with concern, biting his lip. Ryou realized that it was something he some times did when he was nervous but had never seen Bakura do, and for some reason, that amused him to no end. He laughed a bit but then realized how inappropriate it was in situation like this and stopped, wondering if he was still quite sane. Was insanity contagious?

"Ryou?" Bakura spoke, _is he alright?_ "Are you..?"

"I'm not sure," Ryou told softly, not the least bit surprised when he could hear the question before it was spoken. Something happened last night that made it ok, even comforting. "I… I think I should be more upset about this but…"

Bakura nodded. "Maybe you should take a shower, clear your head. I found your clothes." He pointed at a pile on the floor. "You can borrow my towel and I'll make sure nobody walks in on you."

"You want me out of here." Ryou meant it as a question but somehow in the way from his brain to his mouth it changed into a statement. A shower did sound nice though.

"Yeah… It's better if you're not here."

"Alright, I'll get out of your way." He sat up and flinched, face twisting in discomfort. "Just… give me a minute."

Bakura smirked and there was something smug in that smirk that Ryou disliked but didn't find in himself to comment. "Take your time."

xxxxxxx

Bakura watched Ryou limp away, sure that he could cure himself once he wasn't so out of it.

Bakura's clothes were all dirty and his room was a terrible mess, which he would have to clean, but despite all that, he felt pretty damn good right about now. The only person that could dampen his mood was Ryou if the boy decided to disapprove of his deed. He didn't regret killing his former teacher; in fact it was like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He drew on the wall, his hand remembering the pattern much better than his head did, letting him use it for something else.

He hadn't even realized how sexually frustrated he had been until now and how dull his life was now with his legal job, steady income and more or less permanent address. Last night had brought back some of the old thrill and it didn't seem like such a huge loss if he got fired for… engaging in a relationship with a student. He had quite the reputation in certain circles and getting a new job wouldn't form a problem. It was Ryou he was worried about though. As far as he knew, the student didn't usually get into much trouble in these cases, but Bakura would still have to move away, perhaps far away. Holding up a relationship from the other side of the globe would be difficult, link or no link. No matter how great it had been, he had still been thinking with the wrong head.

Everything was ready for some cleaning and Bakura closed the book and sent it back to its place, going to move the curtain. He crouched near the corpse, eyeing it, just to make sure. He had thought for the longest time that he had already gotten rid of this man, but had been proven wrong. Few creatures could survive beheading though…

Bakura stood as the body was caught on fire. The flames wouldn't touch the floor and were harmless to everything except for the remains. He watched the blue tinted flame for a while before closing his eyes, the events after Ryou had fallen playing behind his eyelids.

x

_He saw Ryou fall as if in slow motion and yelled something incoherent. The link was cut off and he couldn't see Ryou's chest rising and falling like it should and felt so empty! There was no longer the presence of Ryou throbbing somewhere in his mind; all that was left was rage and a surge of power that would have killed him in his inexperienced days. _

_With the power and anger came the calm, a state where he could think clearly, coldly. When he turned to face his ex-mentor, he didn't see red. Bakura never saw red when it came down to it. Red blinded people, made them stupid and rash. Now in his calm, he knew his teacher would not leave this room alive, and as their eyes met, so did the teacher._

"_You hurt Ryou." He didn't want to say "killed" because Ryou couldn't be dead. He just couldn't! Bakura's face spread into an insane grin as the man formed a shield in an attempt to save his life. "And now, you will _die_," Bakura snarled out the last word before the first blow came in a form of a defensive pulse and sent him flying on his back. _

"_You always talked too much!" taunted the man, voice near hysteric. Bakura had been able to block only some of it but wasn't too worried; it had been unprepared and cheap. He sent one of his own along the floor, a sneaky little magic parasite, while preparing something in the back of his mind. Bakura was sure that if the man hadn't been so distracted, he would have noticed the parasite travelling along the floor. _

_His teacher assaulted him again while the spell fed off his shield. The pain was more severe now, an internal injury, he guessed. Bakura was all about external injury; the more bloodshed the better, a fact the old man had never approved of. Screw him though; he was going to hell in a few moments anyway. _

"_Is this the power you were boasting to have?! What a joke!"_

_Bakura screamed as pain shot through his side but he could feel it; the shield was almost broken and his spell was ready. He could take a few blows if it meant he would win in the end, the mere knowledge that victory almost taking away most of the pain. His days of half blindly attacking his enemies were over; too bad his teacher's information was so outdated. _

_His grin was back. A hole. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers swiftly and the shield melted under the force of the grown parasite, leaving his opponent wide open. While the man was busy being surprised, Bakura jumped up, ignoring whatever pain he was in and with a sweep of his hand sent the man into a wall. Before he could recover, Bakura connected their palms, the other's back against the wall near the cracked window. He could see his own molten red eyes reflecting on the horrified ones of the man and his grin widened a notch as the other tried to fight his way out, switching from offense to pitiful defense. Their connected hands were aflame with their sparring magic but the spell, or curse more like, was already too far to be prevented, the pressure inside his opponent's skull already increasing. _

"_It's been real but I guess we must now part," Bakura hissed through his wide grin, a wave of near sadistic joy washing over him. He had missed this. "I'm grateful of everything you've taught me, old man, but now…"_

"_No, don't-" The plea was cut short by a pained yell and the man's eyes looked ready to pop out of their sockets. _

_Bakura dug his fingers into the back of the other's hands and released all control he had been holding over the spell, relieved as he hadn't been able to hold on much longer. "Die!"_

_Blood spurted in all directions and Bakura stepped back, shielding his eyes with an arm, muscles relaxing now when they weren't under so much strain. He heard Ryou gasp for breath behind him, the link coming back online, and whirled around to stagger to the boy, only to collapse on top of him, still pained but relieved that the other was alive and he no longer felt empty. _

x

"Bakura?"

He turned to see Ryou standing near the doorway, hair still dripping wet but dressed much to his disappointment. A feeling of threat settled in his stomach. It had been a long time since he had last been scared of anyone but here he feared what this gentle boy would think of him now.

Ryou must have sensed this fear because he smiled sadly, came over and wrapped his arms around Bakura, wet hair brushing his face.

"I'm not entirely ok with the… beheading part, but I can't be angry or disgusted, not with you."

Bakura had been passively receiving the hug, but now he brought his arms around Ryou's waist and buried his face in the wet hair. "He hurt you…"

"I know."

A hacking cough interrupted their moment and Ryou stepped away as Bakura bent over under the force of it.

"Bakura, what's wrong?"

"It seems like… the bastard got one on me after all," he told between coughs, sitting down on the floor, spotting a new bloodstain on his carpet. Oh great…

"Lie down and let me take a look at you," Ryou instructed and Bakura did as told. Ryou's eyebrows knitted together as he laid his hands on Bakura's chest.

"You think it's bad?"

"Well… pretty bad…" Ryou bit his lip. "You should know that besides broken bones, I've never cured any serious injury on humans."

"I'll take my chances."

Ryou nodded, face determinate. "Do you have a marker? A waterproof one?"

"There should be one on the desk."

While Ryou went to get it, Bakura curled on his side in pain, breathing shallow and forced. He could feel Ryou kneel back next to him, marker in hand and drawing on his palm before speaking softly.

"I need you to lie on your back, ok?" He pushed carefully on Bakura's shoulder and got him to roll over. Ryou smiled at him and took his hand, placing his other, marked palm somewhere on his side. "Hold your breath until I say otherwise."

"Humph, bossy." Bakura attempted a smirk but it was left dry and pained.

Ryou gave him a sharp look. "Shut up and do as I say."

"Fine."

Warmth spread through his side and the pain lessened. Ryou's hand glowed softly for a while longer before he let go completely, backing off and brushing the hair out of his face. "You can breathe now, but I think you should go see someone else, just incase I didn't do as good job as I think I did."

"I'm sure you did well, at least it doesn't hurt anymore." Bakura sat up.

"But internal damages-" Ryou shut up because it was difficult to speak with someone's lips on his. Bakura kept it chaste and quick, which was unlike him but fit the occasion.

"Thank you."

Ryou blushed and Bakura found it endearing that he would still blush because of a simple kiss and thanks after all they had done.

"You're welcome."


End file.
